With 75 million users, Spotify has the potential to be a powerful music discovery and marketing tool. New stats from the streamer show that it’s already helping to boost some artists. We can only hope that Spotify remains an independent discovery channel and is not co-opted by the major labels. I guarantee that their trying….
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New stats from Spotify show the music streamer is helping artists grow their fanbases via curated playlists, Fresh Finds and Discover Weekly.
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4,500 Spotify curated playlists generate 1 billion streams per week
- Fresh Finds combines machine and human curation to surface thousands of up-and-coming artists every month.
- Discover Weekly, which is still less than a year old, has connected 40 million listeners with nearly 5 billion new songs
- For 8,000 artists, more than half of their listeners in the last month came via Discover Weekly
- Several artists like BØRNS and Halsey have been discovered by over 1 million new listeners through Discover Weekly.
- Others like Transviolet, TastyTreat, and Safakash – all of whom have over half their monthly listeners coming from Discover Weekly — have used that bump to grow their fanbase.
Here’s what some in the industry are saying:
- Sarah McTaggart of Los Angeles-based band Transviolet said, “getting our music in front of those who are open to discover new music has been key to getting us where we are today. Spotify‘s support has meant so much to us. Not only is it a service we all love personally, but it’s played a huge part in getting our music out there.”
- Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group used Discover Weekly as an A&R tool to sign one artist and is in negotiations with two others all because of DW. “I did not expect that my Discover Weekly playlist would become such an amazing source of new music that I love. We have now made contract offers to three different artists in just the past 2 months and are in discussions with two others.”
- John Fleckenstein, Executive Vice President, RCA Records used Fresh Finds as an A&R tool. “Spotify plays an increasingly big role in discovery for us. The 2million plus streams Muna accumulated through the early championing of Spotify helped validate the instincts and ears of our A&R team. We knew Muna was to be an important band for us and we signed them to RCA.”