How to Follow a Playlist on Spotify (and Why You Should)

Following a playlist on Spotify takes one tap: open the playlist and hit the plus icon next to its title. From that moment it lives in Your Library, and every song the curator adds lands there automatically, with zero effort from you.

How to follow a playlist, step by step

On your phone

1. Open the playlist in the Spotify app.
2. Tap the plus icon under the playlist title. On older versions this is a heart.
3. Done. It now appears in Your Library under Playlists.

On desktop or web

1. Open the playlist in the desktop app or at open.spotify.com.
2. Click the plus icon near the play button.
3. Find it any time in the left sidebar.

Unfollowing is the same tap in reverse, and the curator never gets notified either way. Follows are free, private, and instantly reversible, so there is no reason to overthink them.

Why following beats hunting for music

New songs come to you

An active curator updates their playlist every week or two. When you follow it, those updates just appear. You open Spotify, tap play, and hear songs you have never heard before, chosen by someone whose taste you already trust. No searching, no scrolling.

Your library stops going stale

Most people's Liked Songs collection is a museum of who they were two years ago. A followed playlist is a living thing. It changes while you sleep, which means your library refreshes itself even during weeks when you have no time to look for music.

You reclaim decision time

Deciding what to play is a small tax you pay several times a day. A handful of trusted follows turns that decision into a single tap. Gym time means your workout follow. Evening means your chill follow. The thinking is already done.

How to pick playlists worth following

Not every playlist earns a spot in your library. Before you follow, check four things:

• Last update. If new tracks were added within the past 2 to 4 weeks, a real person is tending it.
• Track count. 40 to 150 tracks is the sweet spot. Ten tracks is too thin to live with; two thousand means nobody is editing.
• Consistency. Play three songs from different parts of the list. They should feel like they belong together.
• A clear identity. The title and description should tell you exactly what the playlist is for. Vague playlists drift.

Follower and save counts help too. A playlist with real saves has been tested by other listeners. Just pair that number with the update date, because a big count on an abandoned playlist means the good days are behind it.

Where to find playlists worth the follow

Start from how you actually listen. If your listening is genre-driven, browse pages like pop or hip-hop and compare which playlists are active right now. If it is moment-driven, mood pages are faster. And if you already know the exact flavor you want, type it into search and judge the results by the checks above.

A simple starter plan

1. Name your three most common listening moments. For most people that is some mix of work, commute, workout, and evenings.
2. Find one strong playlist for each moment and follow it.
3. Live with those three follows for two weeks.
4. Keep the ones you came back to, unfollow the rest, and replace them.

Three good follows will change your listening more than thirty careless ones. You are not collecting playlists, you are hiring curators.

One last habit worth building

Once a month, glance at your followed playlists and ask one question: did this still get updated? If yes, keep it. If it has gone quiet for a couple of months, swap it out. Your library deserves the same care a good curator gives their tracklist. When you are ready to add more, the rest of our guides cover how to judge playlist quality in more depth.