The ability to live off your creativity and passion is one of the music industry’s biggest draws. Getting paid to sit in a studio for days on end creating beats and melodies, stringing and connecting words that reflect your feelings and experiences? Nirvana. But, at the end of the day music is still a business. And with a business comes the not-so-creative aspect of data and analytics. If you’re on Spotify as an artist, then understanding Spotify stats is non-negotiable.
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t measure data if you don’t understand it. In this article, we’ll talk about why Spotify stats matter in the first place. We’ll also touch on some of the key ones to know so you can make bank with your songs.
Why Do Spotify Stats Matter?
Actually making a good profit through your Spotify account will basically be impossible if you don’t understand the analytics associated with it. The best way to make money off your music, or any business really, is if you can see what areas need improving. Then, all you need is a proper plan. You can optimize your performance on the platform, and bring more listers in which can then move your standing up within their algorithm. From there, it’s a shorter jump from having those Spotify stats actually transform into cash.
Top 3 Spotify Stats
While there are tons of different numbers and stats you should be looking at, we collected three of the most important ones to get you started. Make sure to research more via Spotify’s own help center to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.
Streams
A stream is what Spotify calls any time someone listens to a song you’re credited on. In terms of Spotify stats, they offer information on what country your streams are coming from and user demographic (based on the listener’s profile on the platform). Understanding stream data is important because you can see how well your songs are doing. If the numbers are low, then you can research strategies on how to get more people to listen (here is a handy article about this if you’re interested). After all, more streams equal more money.
Playlist
A Spotify playlist is a collection of songs grouped together that you can listen to over and over again in that same order. This is one of the Spotify stats that exist from two points of view, the listener’s side and the artist’s side. The first one refers to either making your own playlist or listening to an already existing one. From the artist side, it’s about what playlists your songs are in. For the sake of this article, we’re going to talk about the artist’s angle. Spotify will show you what playlist your song is in, and among other things, what other songs and artists are in that line up as well. This is useful to know because you get a peek at your competition. From there, you can brainstorm ideas on how to position yourself to get more visibility using your competition’s existing audience. You can read a few helpful tips about that in this article.
Saves
Spotify saves are analytics that looks into how many times your song is saved into a listener’s library. Similar to looking at your streams, these Spotify stats will let you gain some insight into listener demographics. Use this to figure out who your target customer is, what they like, where they live, etc. Take that information and use it to find where these people hang out, whether online or in person. It’s much easier to get your art flowing into the right ears if you know where to look.
