Release Radar
Release Radar is Spotify's weekly playlist of brand-new releases, refreshed every Friday for every user. It pulls from artists the user follows, plus algorithmic suggestions from artists with strong listener overlap. Landing on Release Radar is the first algorithmic distribution layer most independent artists ever reach.
Reviewed by FollowerStar Editorial · Updated April 2026 · Part of the Social Growth Glossary
Every new follower on your Spotify artist profile automatically receives your future releases through Release Radar. That makes follower growth a compound asset - each follower added today increases your guaranteed reach on every release from that moment forward.
Release Radar pulls from three sources: artists the user follows (guaranteed slot), artists similar to ones the user listens to (algorithmic slot), and pre-saves that activated at release time (priority signal). Pre-saves are the strongest single Release Radar lever.
Spotify also weights save-rate and play-through-rate in the first 48 hours of release. Releases that accumulate strong day-one engagement get pushed wider on Release Radar in subsequent weeks, compounding the audience that hears the track.