As an artist, numbers can put on some scary pressure. Metrics like followers or plays are important, but they shouldn’t be your only goals. It is definitely possible to see streaming platform analytics in a positive way, to analyze them and use them to help you develop your project.
What data is available on streaming platforms? How do you find it and, most importantly, how do you understand and use it? Here’s a complete guide!
1. What is data?
Before talking in more detail about music data, it’s important to define the concept. Data is basically all information transmitted, stored, and processed on the Internet. It can take several forms: text, images, videos, audio files, personal data, metadata, etc.
The volume of data generated on the internet is impressive: in this famous infographic, we learn that 6.3 million searches are made on Google every minute.
In this article, we’ll focus on the data and statistics available on streaming platforms, which can help you analyze your presence and refine your strategy.
One of the best-known examples of the use of streaming platform analytics is the Spotify Wrapped campaign at the end of the year. The platform uses all available data to offer listeners a summary of their listening, and artists statistics on their music (number of plays, number of listeners, listeners’ country of origin, etc.).
2. Where can you find streaming platform statistics?
These statistics are present on all streaming platforms. Public users can access certain data, such as the number of streams and subscribers.
But artists have a more interesting option: accessing detailed statistics via streaming platform analytics dashboards. These will allow you to see details about your business, come up with ideas to evolve your strategy and set realistic goals.
For example, you can find data on:
- Spotify for Artists
- Apple Music for Artists
- YouTube Analytics
- Deezer for Creators
That’s why it’s useful to make sure you have access to these interfaces, to gather information on your releases and easily access them at any time.
3. How to use your data
Once you have access to the streaming data, it’s time for the most important phase: the analysis. The real interest of data is using it to get to know your audience and their habits, and to adapt your strategy accordingly.
🔸 Demographics
One of the first benefits of data is to give you a better overview of your listeners. Beyond the number of subscribers and listeners, knowing who they are will help you better target and understand them. You can find information such as the place (country, city), their age, their gender, etc.
Ideas for leveraging streaming platform analytics include:
- Knowing where your listeners are:
The location of your listeners is valuable information if you want to build a stronger connection with them. First of all, you can use it to plan your concerts, in cities where you’re listened to! If you’re not ready yet, you can also offer a more intimate format, such as a showcase or a meetup in a place, to test the excitement of the people who follow you.
You can also use this information for your communication: for example, if you see that many of your listeners are abroad, you can see if this is also the case on your social networks, such as Instagram. You can then translate some posts on your social networks into other languages, which will be appreciated by your followers.
- Choosing your communication channels:
For your communication, it’s better not to have too many channels and carefully choose where your listeners are present. To do this, platform data will still help you: in addition to location, you can use age ranges to find out which channels are most suitable.
If you find, for example, that your listeners are in the 18–25 age group, it may be relevant to be present on TikTok, while Facebook will not be a priority.
- Targeting media outlets in countries where you are listened to
The data can also be useful for your promotion strategy and for targeting your efforts. The popularity of a title in a country shows that it matches local tastes, and you can look to further amplify its visibility.
If your release is popular in a country, you can look to build on this trend by contacting other local media outlets. To do this, you can use the Groover music promotion platform, which allows you to filter the media outlets (blogs, playlists, radios, etc.) by country. In your contacts, don’t hesitate to mention that the title is already listened to locally. This will show that you’re not contacting them at random, and that their audience might appreciate coverage.
🔸 Listens
Generally, streaming platforms give you the global listening figures. This is a good indicator to see the popularity of your songs and growth. But you can go further by analyzing the details of listens with different filters:
- By title, to see which ones are the most popular
- By release (single, EP, album) to find out which one is most listened to, and which release format is most liked
- Observe listening habits, by hour or by period to identify peaks, for example.
Spotify goes even further in the analysis of listening, with audience segments. This information allows you to differentiate the active audience (who intentionally listened to your music) from the programmed audience (who listened to your music via a playlist).
🔸 Stream source
The origin of streams is a little-used piece of streaming platform analytics data that is nevertheless essential: it allows you to learn how listeners discover your music. With that info, you can look to push these discovery channels to reach even more new people!
On platforms, there are a multitude of different sources:
- A playlist by a curator (media outlet, artist, etc.)
- An algorithm-based playlist, like Discover Weekly on Spotify or Deezer’s Flow
- A playlist by theme, such as yoga or an event
- Suggestions based on similar artists
- Shazam, when people hear your song and want to identify it
You can use this to adjust your promotion strategy: for example, if you see listeners discovering you via playlists, you can thank the person who manages this playlist and send them your next tracks. With Groover, you can also find new playlists similar to those where you already appear, and send your music directly to them. The advantage is that you can be sure that your music will be listened to and that you will receive a response.
—
Want your music to get on playlists? 👇
—
Shazam, with data available through Apple Music for Artists, is also a valuable source of information: for example, you can see the location of the people who shazamed your song. If you identify a recurring location, it can be a sign that your song is played in a place (restaurant, store) or in content such as a video.
🔸 Similar Artists
Suggesting similar artists is a feature well known by listeners on all platforms. On the artists side, we don’t always think about using it, but it’s an interesting route.
First of all, taking an interest in similar artists can help you take inspiration from their approach: how do they communicate? What playlists are they on? How often do they release songs? This way, you can identify points that appeal to your common audiences.
Then, it’s always good to be connected with other artists who share the same space as you. You can look at similar artists and get in touch with them for various reasons: to discuss, share your experiences, or even consider a collaboration with a remix or a title featuring the other artist.
4. Tools to gather and analyze data
Each streaming platform has its own data analysis interface. So if you want to look at all of them and analyze them, it’s going to take you a while. To make it easier for you and provide you with an overview, there are tools that aggregate the data.
This allows you to track and analyze all your data on a single dashboard. Examples of tools include:
- IMusician Music Analytics, which allows you to track statistics, among other iMusician tools to manage the distribution of your music
- Chartmetric which centralizes the statistics of different streaming platforms as well as other channels such as TikTok and Shazam.
Before adopting these tools, think about whether it’s really necessary. If you’ve just started out, you can definitely use platform interfaces, focusing on those where you have the most activity. If your project is already at a mature stage, and you can dedicate a budget to it, you can use these tools to save time.
We hope these tips will help you better use the statistics available on streaming platforms to manage your musical project. Remember to check them regularly to find out where you stand and find new ideas to grow your audience, all while making sure you don’t just focus on the numbers, but also pay attention to the written feedback on your music, including those from the media outlets contacted via Groover.
– Translated by Kole Wright –
—
Send your music to playlist curators 👇