Spotify is the best music streaming service for discovering new music, but finding niche songs is sometimes challenging because of its sheer volume. Thankfully, there are some easy methods to find local artists within the Spotify app.
1 Searching for Local Playlists
After being inspired by a trip to the Faroe Islands in 2024, I was interested in finding local music and developing a playlist. I have an Icelandic music playlist consisting of around 200+ songs, and since the languages are somewhat similar, I figured I might find some interesting tracks. The first thing I did was simply type “Faroe Islands” in the search bar.
After doing this, I found a couple of playlists promoting Faroese artists. To start with, I listened to the songs on the playlist. When I found an artist that I liked, I then explored their catalog and added their music to my playlist.
You’ll sometimes find related songs from artists in different regions, so if you want to keep the playlist strictly local, it’s worth doing some additional research.
2 Creating a Playlist and Using the Recommendations
If you already know a couple of songs created by local artists, I recommend making your own playlist. You’ll get more recommendations from the same musicians already on your playlist, along with others in the same genre. You may also get recommended songs from the same region, especially if you’ve added songs in a language not spoken by many people.
You can listen to songs before adding them, and it’s also easy to quickly add tracks that you like. The more relevant songs you add, the better Spotify will get at recommending them.
3 Using Spotify’s Custom Playlists
Besides creating your own playlists (and using Spotify’s hidden features to improve your listening experience), the app will also make playlists for you. You’ll often find these if you just search for the genre you want, and I’ve also found playlists by searching for particular regions. In the example we’ve been using throughout, I looked for Faroese songs and found pop and folk playlists.
I’ve found that these playlists are relatively accurate, and you’ll find plenty of interesting songs that you otherwise wouldn’t have. I tried searching for Spotify’s custom playlists in other regions, too, and it was pretty accurate—even if I hadn’t previously listened to that genre.
4 Using a VPN
Spotify sometimes recommends artists based on your location; you might have noticed this if you’ve listened to music on the app while traveling. While you might not have the opportunity to move closer to where you’re trying to find artists, changing your location via a VPN might work.
It doesn’t really matter which VPN service you use as long as you can connect to a server in the region for which you’re trying to find artists. This might be more difficult if it’s a specific village, but it could work for smaller towns and cities.
5 Looking for Similar Artists
Once you’ve found one local artist, it’ll become much easier to find others. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve found one musician I like and then ended up going down a rabbit hole of recommended artists. While this isn’t always fruitful, it more often than not is.
To find similar artists, go to the profile of one that you’ve already found and scroll down. Then, when you see Fans Also Like, browse these artists’ catalogs. You can also look at playlists and albums featuring your newfound artist to see if you can find any others.
Many artists will also create Spotify playlists where they share the music that has inspired them and their own favorite musicians. You’ll likely find some hidden gems within these, so I suggest also checking those out.
Spotify’s comprehensive music catalog means you’ll likely find interesting local artists to add to your playlists. You just need to find one that you like to then discover others more easily, and it probably won’t take you too long to find one if you follow the tips I’ve given you today.
