The best Spotify playlists worth following

How these playlists were chosen.

Each playlist needed a clear musical job, an identifiable curator and either current activity or durable archival value. A huge follower count was not enough. A small playlist was not rewarded merely for being obscure. I also rejected lists that existed mainly to sell submissions or could not explain what made one selection different from the next.

The order is practical rather than numerical. Start with the first section if you want a steady feed of new releases across genres. Go to the second if you want electronic and dance music with sharper scene boundaries. If none of these works, how to find new music covers radio, labels, DJ sets, databases and other routes that do not begin inside Spotify.

Best Spotify playlists for finding new music.

Best electronic and dance Spotify playlists.

Which Spotify playlist should you choose?

Start with the curator, not the follower count. A station playlist is useful when you want a changing release feed. A publication list lets you connect songs to reviews. An artist playlist exposes influences and records carried into DJ sets. A label playlist stays narrower, but that narrowness is the point.

Save one list that updates often and one long archive that does not need to. The first keeps you current; the second lets you enter somewhere other than the top. If you want an hour with an actual sequence rather than a list on shuffle, go to live DJ sets or let the Selector choose one complete set at random.

For scene context, continue with the guides to bass music, UK garage, dubstep and drum and bass.