Tag: Spotify Help

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3 Ways To Drastically Improve Spotify For Artists

Spotify For Artists

Spotify’s importance in the music ecosystem is great, but there are several ways the streaming giant can improve their artist portal to benefit all musicians.

Analysts can and will debate the streaming royalty rates that Spotify offers musicians for as long as the service exists. We’ve written about it extensively ourselves, and we will continue to do so, but Spotify’s relationship with musicians is about more than money. The company possesses a massive amount of data, all of which is the direct result of artists sharing music on its platform. Still, only a tiny amount is made available to talent. Spotify For Artists is one of the best analytics services in the industry, and yet, there is far more that can (and should) be available to musicians.

The Spotify For Artists platform currently offers musicians the ability to submit music for playlist consideration, review play counts for their entire catalog, and learn the location of their listeners. Artists can also update their account by adding and removing photos, as well as updating their biography and concert listings. These tools are impressive, and they go a long way toward helping musicians understand and build their audience. Still, there are data points that Spotify could supply that needs to the company needs to consider for future updates.

Revenue Insights

The biggest thing lacking from Spotify For Artists today is information related to the money artists earn from the platform. Artists cannot see how much money their music has earned to date, nor can they access estimated revenue for the current day, week, or month. Aside from play counts, musicians don’t even know how much money they’ve earned from specific songs.

Spotify’s payment system is complicated. There is no flat-rate for streams. The amount a song earns per stream is a complex calculation that includes the total streams on the platform. That may contribute to the company’s decision to withhold earnings information, but it doesn’t change the fact that artists deserve to know how and why behind their payments.

Advanced Audience Insights

Musicians can currently view the cities where they are most popular, as well as the total number of fans in that area. They can also see similar insights about the audience for each song in their catalog. That’s useful, to an extent, but stops short of providing key information such as:

  • What songs are most popular in each location.
  • Average listening of those in a specific location.
  • Change in listeners in a specific area from month to month.
  • Ages and Gender information for each region.
  • What percentage of the audience from an area follows the artists versus passive listeners.
  • The lifespan of the average listener.

Bring Back The Ability To Message Followers

In the earliest versions of Spotify, artists could message their followers. The tool disappeared to help streamline the platform and prevent users from being overwhelmed by promotional messaging from their favorite artists. It’s easy to understand how that decision came to pass, but it’s time to resurrect messaging to empower artists further. Spotify is now the most popular music streaming platform in the world, and its continuing reign over the competition depends on artists promoting their service. To do that, Spotify needs to give artists something other services have not, and a direct line to their a musician’s most active fans is the perfect solution.

Think about it. Spotify knows every musician’s most active listeners. They know their name, location, favorite songs, time spent listening, and more. Only a small fraction of that data is currently available to artists, in part because Spotify doesn’t want engagement happening outside its platform. Enabling a messaging platform provides a means of communication between artists and fans that occurs exclusively on Spotify and raises engagement across the board. Everyone wins.

There are more ways Spotify can improve, but these three changes would make a substantial impact on how artists use the platform and engage with their audience. By creating these updates, Spotify would be playing a role in determining future tour routings, recording efforts, release plans, and merch sales. Spotify could, in essence, become a complete music ecosystem rather than one small part of a much larger industry machine.

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Spotify Playlists Scams and How To Avoid Them [Video]

The most prevalent ads for musicians on social media promise guaranteed placement on hugely influential playlists for a small amount of money. But how do you know when an offer is too good to be true?

Anyone working in music will recognize this scene: You’re scrolling through social media on your phone when you see an advertisement for a company you don’t know claiming that they can get you onto influential Spotify playlists. These ads often feature an image of one or more playlists, such as the wildly popular Rap Caviar. These companies typically charge a fixed rate for this life-changing opportunity, and it’s often less than the price you pay for rent in any American city. It’s the kind of thing that sounds too good to be true, and that’s because — by and large — it’s a lie.

Selling people on the idea of achieving their wildest dreams is nothing new, but in the age of social media and targeted marketing, snake oil salesman are more cunning than ever. Facebook and Instagram offer a robust set of tools for advertisers to market their products and services to the people most likely to click on their messaging. That makes it incredibly easy to find desperate people willing to take a chance on false promises of significant returns being real. After all, who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity appear on a playlist with millions of followers? That’s a feat very few artists ever accomplish!

The simple truth is that if such services were real, then everyone in music would use them. If that were the case, then every significant playlist would be flooded with talent that no one knows to promote songs nobody has heard. But anyone with Spotify can tell you that is not the case. None of the company-curated playlists can be hacked through third-party promotion services. Nobody can buy their way onto these playlists, especially not someone from a company you and your music friends have never heard of that is run by people you can’t find or chat with over the phone. That’s not how the music business works.

In the latest episode of Music Biz, host James Shotwell breaks down the truth about playlist placement services, where they come from, and how anyone can easily spot scams from a mile away. His words will save you untold amounts of money, which you can then use to pay for a proper PR or marketing team that cares about your work. Check it out:

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution company. Join today and gain immediate access to the same promo tools used by Bruce Springsteen, Slipknot, Jason Isbell, and thousands more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup to start your free trial.

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How Spotify is responding to COVID-19

After taking the time to consider its options, Spotify has rolled out a series of announcements relating to COVID-19 and its efforts to support musicians.

It’s no secret that Covid-19 has thrown most of the music industry into turmoil. Artists are currently unable to tour, which has hurt revenue and promotional efforts, and many don’t know whether or not to continue with plans to release new material. Add to this the fact that manufacturers of physical media (CDs/Vinyl) are closing to slow the spread of the disease and streaming seems to be slowing, and many are wondering what will be the next problem to arise.

Since fears of the novel coronavirus forced musicians off the road in early March, there have been persistent calls for the streaming industry to offer relief. Some have called for Spotify to raise royalty rates, while others have been asking for a lump sum donation to relief organizations. The Swedish company responded to those demands earlier today, March 25, but probably not in the way many anticipated.

In a post on the company’s official blog, Spotify announced plans to match donations to select artist relief organizations up to $10 million. Additionally, Spotify “made contributions to public health organizations and donated ad inventory and platform space to share news and health information with our users,” the post revealed. “We’ve also created a dedicated COVID-19 hub providing our listeners with a go-to place for news and information. And importantly, all the while, we’re continuing to support the health, safety, and livelihoods of our employees. Check out the below graphic for more information—and know that our support will continue to evolve.”

Spotify is also rolling out a new feature to artists. The company will soon unveil a donation button that can be added to any artist profile to direct fans to support that musician directly. That is not the same as a tip jar, which would allow people to contribute via Spotify. The new tool will redirect listeners to a third-party site of the artist’s choosing to support that musician during this difficult time.

If you’re a Spotify for Artists user interested in this feature, please sign up here, and the company will email you when it’s ready.

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Artists Can Now Share Spotify Canvas Clips To Instagram

Spotify now enables artists to share their moving-album-artwork Canvas clip direct to Instagram stories via the Spotify For Artists app on iOS, ideally deepening fan engagement with the tool.  

Engagement is the name of the game at Spotify. The streaming giant knows you want music at your fingertips, but they rely on constant engagement to build their business. Time spent listening is a key data point for investors, advertisers, and shareholders. The introduction of the Canvas tool in 2019 gave streaming a boost, with internal analytics showing that the brief videos raised track shares up to 200%, not to mention raising total streams and saves, and now the company is furthering their efforts to make the tool useful to artists.

Starting this week, Spotify now allows artists to share their canvas clips through Instagram Stories. Artists can show off their Canvases and invite their Insta followers to click through to Spotify, where they’ll be able to take in the Canvas and its associated song together.

Canvas sharing is currently available to creators in the Canvas beta who are using the Spotify for Artists app on iOS. In your Artist profile, each of your tracks which is accompanied by a Canvas has a “Share” icon next to it; tapping on that will let you share the song, and its Canvas, to your Instagram Stories. Your post will look like a regular Spotify share, with cover art and a link to play the track on Spotify—only now, your Canvas will be the backdrop. (Audio will not play on Instagram.)

Fans seeing the Canvas on Instagram will not be counted in Canvas metrics unless they click through to Spotify.

Spotify has not yet revealed a public release date for Canvas. For now, artists can visit the company’s dedicated Canvas site and sign up for the waiting list.

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How Many Spotify Streams Do You Need To Live Above The Poverty Line?

Spotify streaming royalties often upset artists, but how many plays does a musician need to live above the poverty line? We did the math.

The streaming wars are raging on. Spotify has more than one hundred million monthly subscribers worldwide, which places the platform far ahead of its peers, but Apple Music and Amazon Music are gaining millions of new users with each passing month. Whether or not the global economy can sustain the numerous streaming platforms won’t be decided for some time, but whether or not artists can survive the streaming economy is a hot topic that needs to be addressed.

Any industry expert will tell you that musicians today have it easy. There are more avenues for exposure than ever, recording music is (or can be) cheap, and an increasing number of artists are finding success outside the traditional label system. It is theoretically possible for anyone with access to a laptop and the ability to convey a melody to become a digital sensation who has fans all over the world without the aid of big label money (though, to be fair, big label money still makes a sizable difference).

Streaming payouts are a relatively new revenue stream for musicians. No one is suggesting artists survive on streaming royalties alone. Still, with physical media sales bottoming out and competition for tour revenue increasing, the money made from streaming can have a significant impact on an artist’s ability to develop, not to mention sustain themselves.

Still, every other week someone goes viral online and builds an entire career of the profits made from streaming royalties. The majority of these overnight sensations are young and without families to support, but they still have the cost of living expenses that need to be met. That got us to thinking: How many streams does it take to survive on streaming revenue alone?

According to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the poverty line for single-person households is $11,770. If we ignore how that figure would be hard for anyone to live on in a major city (and most mid-size cities), then we can round up to $12,000 and use streaming revenue calculators to figure out how many Spotify streams someone would need to sustain themselves.

At an average payout of $0.006 per song stream, a musician living in the United States needs 3,000,000 plays annually to have a gross income of $12,000. 

Of course, if the artist has a label deal the record company would get paid before the artist. Depending on the amount owed to the label, the artist may need millions of addition plays to see the same amount of income themselves.

But what about people with families? The ASPE puts the poverty line for a family of four (2 adults, 2 children) at $24,250. Using the same average royalty rate, a musician would need 6,062,500 Spotify streams to earn that amount of gross income.

These numbers get much bigger when the musician is part of a larger group. If a band has four members and all four have families where they were the sole source of income, the group would need to generate 24,250,000 Spotify streams to gross enough so each member’s family would be at or above the poverty line.

Again, no one is saying an artist should survive on streaming royalties alone. Some will be able to make it work, especially if they have a large following and low overhead, but most will need to create as many revenue streams as possible to survive. The key to a long career in music today is through the development of a community around an artist and their work that promotes purchasing merch, physical media, and concert tickets. That has always been true, and likely won’t change anytime soon.

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3 Ways Spotify Should Improve ‘Wrapped’ For Artists

Spotify’s end of year review feature offers a lot of fun insights, but it falls short of giving artists actionable data. We have a solution (or three). 

Spotify released a ‘Wrapped’ feature for artists this week that shares interesting information regarding their performance on the platform. Anyone with access to a Spotify For Artists account can see how much their music was consumed, which days they were most popular, where their fans live, and more through a series of animated slides that — at first glance — appear to offer crucial insights into consumer behavior.

But there’s a problem. While fun data that offers no true value is good for pleasing listeners, artists deserve more. Spotify lives and dies based on whether or not artists choose to promote through their service, so it would benefit the streaming giant to give musicians additional insight into the listening habits of their fans. What they offer now is a good start, but truthfully, the data provided only scratches the surface of what is (in theory) possible. 

Here are three changes that would greatly benefit all musicians and, in turn, help Spotify continue to reign as the preferred platform of people around the globe.

Give musicians more information about their biggest fans.

Spotify For Artists will tell musicians how many users listened to their music more than anyone else in a given year. However, the data stops short of telling us anything about those listeners. Who are they? Where do they come from? Without invading anyone’s privacy, Spotify could share geographic insights to help plan tour routes and targeted digital marketing campaigns. Knowing how many people listened to you more than anyone else is cool, but ultimately useless without any supplementary information.

If Spotify knows when interest peaked, can it tell us why?

Spotify For Artists will tell you the date and hour when your music was most popular. It can also tell you how many times your music was streamed during that hour. What we don’t know, however, is why that surge happened. Was the musician added to an influential playlist? Did all the streams happen for a specific song, such as a newly released single, or was it a bunch of tracks all at once? Was there any rhyme or reason for the surge of interest, or did it merely happen out of the blue? We don’t know any of this information because Spotify stops short of giving artists what they need to craft better marketing campaigns in the future.

Let’s talk about money

The first screen in the Spotify For Artists Wrapped feature shows a musician’s most popular songs for the last year, the total number of streams, and the day that song was played the most. Another screen tells artists the total playtime for all their songs throughout the year. This data is once again interesting, but it doesn’t tell us much in terms of usefulness. Knowing how much money a song generated over the course of a year is more beneficial to an artist than knowing their audience spent 1,000 hours listening to that song. The same goes for the catalog as a whole.

Many artists, especially those with label deals, are splitting their royalties between numerous parties. Receiving a grand total for revenue from Spotify can help shed light on whether or not musicians are receiving the money they earned. It can also help them understand the value or promoting their music through Spotify. 

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Labels can now pay Spotify to promote artists on its platform

Spotify is testing a new ad platform that allows artist teams to promote music directly to fans without turning to third-party applications.

Spotify users are already familiar with ‘Music For You’ notifications. These alerts appear on screen to inform fans and followers of an artist when their favorite musicians have a new release. It is a helpful tool that encourages fans to support the music they love in a crowded marketplace where nobody can remember every release date. And now, for the first time, those notifications are for sale.

A ‘New Music For You’ notification

This week, Spotify began testing a new tool in the United States the allows record labels and artists to purchase ‘Music For You’ notifications for their latest releases. The pop-ups will land within both free and premium accounts using the same algorithm already in place for organic (free) notifications to alert an artist’s most dedicated followers.

Spotify Founder and CEO Daniel Ek hinted at the ads during the company’s Q2 earnings call earlier this year. Speaking to investors, Ek said, “We believe we can find a way to charge record companies to pay to promote their artists directly to their fans on our platform without p**sing off our users too much. If we succeed, labels might then switch some of their digital ad spend away from Google, Facebook, and Instagram, and over to us.” 

In simpler terms, Spotify knows labels and musicians pay social media platforms to run ads that inevitably link to an artist’s Spotify page. The streaming giant hopes the opportunity to push engagement through its platform instead of third-part apps will lead the industry to invest more money into Spotify (in hopes of earning more through the platform).

Music Business Worldwide reports that Premium Spotify users will be able to turn off sponsored ‘Music For You’ alerts, but free users will be stuck with them.

Spotify’s introduction of ‘Music For You’ alerts could not have been smoother. Users are already familiar with the notification system, and many rely on the service to help them remember when musicians release new material. Though the company has not shared any data with the public, one can assume the company knows the conversion rates for these messages and is factoring them into the pricing for paid promotion. It’s already a proven marketing tool despite no one paying for access before this moment. 

The situation also brings to mind the metaphor of a snake eating its tail. Music professionals often complain about the low royalty rates Spotify pays out, and now many will give Spotify money out of their pockets in hopes of getting additional revenue. It’s a vicious cycle that opens up a world of ‘pay to play’ possibilities that could hinder independent artists from gaining traction for their music.

Jordyn Reese, Product Manager, US Latin & Urban, ONErpm, said: “As an independent distributor, it’s essential for us to spend our marketing budgets wisely and find creative strategies to develop our artists’ audiences. It’s really exciting to see Spotify is creating tools that are designed from the ground up with music marketing in mind and giving indies more power to reach their fans with new music. This will absolutely be one of the top tools in our growth arsenal.”

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How To Make The Most Of Spotify’s Canvas Tool

There are going to be a lot more looping videos on Spotify in the near future, and that’s good news for everyone.

Spotify is taking further steps to empower artists on its platform. This week, the streaming giant is expanding its Canvas visualization beta program to more of the ‘most active Spotify for Artists’ users. The company claims that adding a ‘high-quality [clip] to a track can increase streams, saves, artist profile visits, and shares.’

Canvas allows artists to create and feature looping visuals in the “Now Playing” area, which Spotify says is the most-viewed location in the Spotify mobile app. The clips last 3-8 seconds and can be updated as often as the artist desires. Here’s a Canvas clip in action for reference:

According to Spotify, “adding a high-quality Canvas to a track has increased streams by up to 120% and saves by up to 114%, in addition to lifts in artist profile visits and shares.”

The company adds, “It’s a way to get noticed and build a vision — and an excellent way to share more of who you are with your listeners, hopefully turning them into fans.”

But what makes a Canvas good, and how can artists on tight budgets compete with stylized visuals major labels can provide? Here are some tips to get you started:

Vertical video is king

Canvas uploads will be viewed by people holding their devices as they use the Spotify app. With this in mind, make sure the clips you upload are formatted for a vertical video presentation. 

Do not use your song title or artist name

That information is already present on the screen. There is something to be said for emphasizing your branding, of course, but Canvas is not the place to make that a priority. Canvas uploads should reflect the aesthetic of your music. Think of it as an extension of the music itself. It’s an expression of who you are as an artist, and you shouldn’t waste the limited space available to you with restating information that is already clearly available on the screen.

Avoid footage with talking, singing, or rapping.

Canvas clips are 3-8 seconds in length. If your clip features mouths moving they will rarely, if ever, sync up with the music. That could distract people, which in turn will make them lose interest in the song. 

Keep rapid cuts and flashing graphics to a minimum.

There are a number of people with sensitivities to strobe lights, as well as people who feel overwhelmed by quick edits. You want your Canvas to be as appealing as possible to as many people as possible, so try to avoid anything that might make people sick or otherwise uncomfortable.

Try telling a (very short) story.

3-8 seconds is not very long, but there are many ways to make something that grabs and holds listeners’ attention in that amount of time. After all, .gifs are equally as short and they’re widely considered currency in internet culture. Take up the challenge of creating content that seamlessly loops, or perhaps string together all the Canvas clips for your album to tell a single story. Think outside the box. Be weird. 

People love a theme.

If storytelling is not your strength, try using canvas to tie your music together with a theme. Pull from your artwork or branding to create visuals that leave a lasting impression on viewers. For example, if you have flowers on your cover art, try using flowers throughout the Canvas loops created for the individual tracks.

Focus on the middle.

What people see at the edge of your Canvas clip will depend on the device they are using to view the loop. With this in mind, keep the most important content of your video centered in the frame. That way, everyone who views the clip is guaranteed to see what you created in full.

Update often.

Canvas loops should not be considered a one and done scenario. Some artists have found success by changing their loops every week, while others rotate visuals on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Keep listeners on their toes by giving them new content to discover on a regular basis.

Don’t be an idiot.

People of all ages, genders, and ethnicities use Spotify to discover music. Creating Canvas clips containing violence, sex, or anything insensitive will get your content pulled and limit the potential reach of your music. In certain cases, Spotify may even delete your account. 

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How to Succeed on Spotify in Two Steps

Streaming has made a significant impact on songwriting. So much so, that the entire music industry is trying to catch up to ‘The Spotify Sound.’

No one knew what Spotify would do to the music business. People were quick to assume the easy of access to the majority of all recorded music would lure people away from physical media, but no one thought to consider the ripple effect that seismic shift in consumer behavior would create.

Physical sales of music were on the decline before Spotify launched, but the now ten-year-old company and its competitors in the streaming market have also created a drop in download sales. A few niche formats found success in the early 2010s, specifically vinyl and cassette tapes, but those trends have also fizzled as streaming continues to gain momentum.

The latest evolution resulting from the age of streaming concerns songwriting. With most streaming platforms counting a play after consumers have listened to the track for thirty-seconds, more emphasis than ever is being placed on the way songs begin. There is also added emphasis on the runtime of tracks, as well as the volume of material being released.

On this episode of Music Biz 101, host James Shotwell explains the phenomenon know as ‘The Spotify Sound’ and offers a two-step solution to writing songs that generate a high volume of streams.

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What is the ‘Spotify Sound,’ and how is it changing music?

Spotify has changed the music business in many ways, including a few that you may have never considered.

There are many streaming services in the world, but none of them can compare to the size and influence of Spotify. With more than one-hundred million subscribers, the Swedish based company has nearly double the audience of its closest competitor (Apple Music). The company has grown so popular, in fact, that it has become a kind of shorthand for streaming music. People say, “Do you use Spotify,” instead of, “do you subscribe to a streaming music platform?”

Spotify has revolutionized how artists make money from their music. The company pays, on average, between $0.006 and $0.0084 per song stream. A single stream is counted when the listener has played thirty-seconds of the track. If the listener finishes the song, that’s great, but it doesn’t change the amount of money the stream earns for the artist.

With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why many industry experts claim Spotify has changed the sound of music. The ‘Spotify Sound,’ as it has been dubbed, refers to artists who waste no time getting to the heart of their song. The days of lengthy introductions or slow-burning tracks has been replaced by immediate choruses or other attention-grabbing tactics.

Another element of the ‘Spotify Sound’ is the length of a song, which again is a result of the company’s approach to compensating talent. If a play is counted after thirty-seconds of listening time, then artists are not incentivized to make longer songs. The more financially informed approach would be to record more material that is shorter, thus earning more money. A five-minute song earns as much as a two-minute song, but listeners can play multiple two-minute songs in the same amount of time, which means they can earn more money.

A glance at the Spotify and Billboard charts shows the impact of the company’s influence. “Old Town Road,” which has spent three months topping charts, is less than two minutes in length. The remix, which helped catapult the song into the pop stratosphere, runs just over two and a half minutes long.

Artists who have adapted to the influence of the ‘Spotify Sound’ are seeing success on the platform. In a recent digital feature from PBS, two members of the group Frenship credited their efforts to match the changing trends for the success they found with their hit “Capsize.” Check it out:

Other platforms have different rules for what counts as a play. Some services require a certain percentage of the song to be enjoyed before a play is counted, while others have a higher minimum for time spent listening. Both methods of counting plays encourage the same thing. Artists should make shorter, catchier songs if they want to earn big from streaming services.

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