Streams: the number of times a track has been played for 30 seconds or longer.The Playlists tab, where you can see playlists on which your tracks have been featured, including algorithmic, editorial, and user / listener playlists.Īs you may have noticed, both Songs and Releases have the same columns of data:.The Releases tab, where tracks released less than 7 days ago have live (real-time) data.The Songs view, where you can find all of the tracks you’ve released under your account to date.Spotify for Artists Analytics Explainedįrom the Spotify for Artists dashboard, there are two views that we are primarily interested in: the Music page and the Audience page. In short: your audience is out there, somewhere in the big, wide world. Trying to pitch McKee to 25+ women, when her real listeners were 13- to 17-year-olds, is like trying to market Hello Kitty handbags to corporate executives - it’s not going to work very well. In McKee’s case, when the label released her songs on a music streaming platform, they discovered that her music actually appealed to a far younger audience than they’d imagined - the data showed that almost half of her listeners were under the age of 17. But if you don’t know who your followers are, winning engaged listeners can be an uphill battle, and a huge portion of the time and money you spend promoting your music will be wasted. Here’s the rub, though: most musicians recognize that building a fan base is important. fail … the fans aren’t invested in the artist, just the song.” “What we’ve learned is that if a band builds an online fan base first, they have a better chance. The launch didn’t go very well, and Anderson quotes the executive who ran the campaign:
Based on McKee’s background, the label believed she should be pitched to listeners of adult contemporary music, primarily women between 25 and 35. The importance of data, analytics, and digital marketing, for musicians to find the right audience in the streaming music landscape is best demonstrated by a case study in The Long Tail, a book by Chris Anderson (the former editor of Wired magazine).Īnderson recounts how a record label wanted to launch Bonnie McKee, a new artist at the time. But if you’re wondering why your music isn’t winning as many listeners as you were hoping for, there’s a fair chance that the key to growth lies in how you’re promoting your music and who you’re pitching to, rather than in the music itself. Perfecting and improving your sound is always priority numero uno. To be clear, we’re not recommending putting the cart before the horse. It’s why so many up-and-coming artists really struggle with finding and growing an engaged audience. Let’s face it, most people become musicians because they want to make music, not because they’re crazy about marketing tasks like discovering the right audience and using data to increase popularity and commercial success.īut the notion that, “If you make it, they will come” - “it” being the music, and “they” being your target audience - is one of the biggest myths in the industry. We’ll demystify what the various data types actually mean, and break down how you can use them to multiply your fans, regardless of what stage of growth you’re at as an artist.īut first… As a Musician, Do You Really Need to Bother With Data and Analytics at All? In this post, we’ll give you the lowdown on the analytics in Spotify for Artists. The best part about Spotify for Artists, in particular, is that in addition to being free, it helps answer questions that musicians have always been asking: Who are my fans? What do they like about my music? What else are they listening to? What music should I make next? Today, musicians have access to powerful marketing insights, via tools like Spotify for Artists, that would have astonished Mr. You’ve probably heard the famous quote, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted the trouble is I don't know which half.” It was John Wanamaker, a pioneer of some of the techniques in modern marketing, who said that, over a hundred years ago, but it’s still a sentiment that we often hear from many musicians.įortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. Find and Grow Your Target Audience With Spotify for Artists Analytics