There’s no way you’ve missed it. You must have read at least once, “With over XXX Spotify’s monthly listeners, X is the new Pop sensation.” Or something of that nature. But what does this really mean? What are Spotify‘s monthly listeners, and how are they counted? And do they REALLY matter?
We delve into these questions in this article, shedding light on the significant role of Spotify’s monthly listeners in the music industry.
What are Spotify’s monthly listeners?
Let’s put it very simply. Monthly listeners are the statistics displayed at the very top of every artist page on Spotify. Spotify is well aware that fans and labels alike scrutinize this statistic, and it has placed it prominently.
Monthly listeners differ from the number of streams displayed for an artist’s songs. Their calculation does not follow the same pattern: total streams are cumulative, whereas monthly listeners only focus on a twenty-eight-day period. In short, monthly listeners “reload” after twenty-eight days, while total streams have no cut-off date. Be careful not to confuse the two!
It’s important to point out that Spotify has developed tools to detect whether an artist or his label has purchased fake monthly listeners. Some profiles still fall through the cracks, but if Spotify detects suspicious activity, such as a drastic increase in monthly listeners, it’s possible to penalize or even suspend that account.
Real value?
For most people, and given that Spotify reveals few other figures and that not all of its competitors put forward this statistic, the monthly listener has become a metric for measuring popularity. Many people rely solely on this metric and nothing else to assess an artist’s impact. It’s like looking only at the number of followers a profile has on Instagram without looking at the engagement of its posts. Engagement, which reflects posts’ real value and influence, is more important than a number whose nuances we don’t understand at first glance.
Monthly listeners can be misleading and give a truncated picture of an artist’s profile. Also, if an unknown artist appears on a superstar’s song – remixing one of his songs, for example – his monthly listeners will skyrocket. We saw this recently with Drake and the singer Pimmie, whose appearance on the Canadian rapper’s latest album took him from very few monthly listeners to colossal figures.
But will these artists last? Shouldn’t these statistics be qualified? And how are they calculated?
How are Spotify’s monthly listeners calculated?
It’s straightforward: the song must be listened to for at least thirty seconds for a stream to be counted as a monthly listener. At twenty-nine seconds, there is no additional stream! And all this is calculated over a window of twenty-eight days.
Spotify can detect whether a song has been mutated. If this is the case—if, for example, a user leaves his Spotify running with the sound muted—then these streams are not counted.
Monthly listeners are unique users. This means that if a person listens to a single song by an artist for thirty-one seconds and then never listens to another song for the whole world, he will still be counted as a monthly listener. He’ll have the same weight as a Spotify user who has listened 4578 times – it’s possible, we assure you! – songs by the same artist. Each of them counts as a monthly listener.
On the other hand, the famous person who listened 4578 times the songs of this artist will weigh more heavily in the total streams generated by an artist over a year, for example. And therefore generate more revenue. Monthly listeners are essential but should not be the only metric studied.
Moreover, a 2024 study by Music Business Worldwide revealed that in 2023, only 19% of artists had more than 1,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. This interesting figure shows just how much a handful of artists dominate the music industry.
The calculation is similar for the number of streams: a stream equals thirty seconds or more of listening to a song!
Do Spotify’s monthly listeners matter?
The answer to Spotify’s Monthly listeners and whether they matter is nuanced. Firstly, yes, these statistics do matter. Spotify is today, and is likely to remain for a long time to come, the most widely used streaming platform in the world. From a marketing point of view, this can be a powerful argument.
Indeed, it’s common to see press releases highlighting this metric to show how widely listened to an artist is. More than the number itself, it’s often the evolution of this number that can turn heads. It’s common to see these statistics soar after a particular event, a song that explodes, or a significant media exposure. There are correlations between the emergence of a Trend on TikTok and the evolution of an artist’s monthly listeners on Spotify.
Be careful!
But beware: predictions about TikTok are almost impossible. The majority of the record industry and artists are trying to master this social network. They are aware that the appearance of a song in numerous trends is a gateway to success. Until now, almost no one has managed to unravel the mysteries of its algorithm. Therefore, the only possible analysis is to correlate TikTok with the evolution of Spotify’s monthly listeners: several studies have been conducted, and there is a real correlation between Spotify and TikTok.
Spotify’s monthly listeners matter, as they provide an index of popularity and can serve as a basis for building an expansion and communication strategy. The potential impact of a high or growing number of monthly listeners on an artist’s career is significant, underscoring the weight of this metric in the music industry.
The main factor to observe is not the number of monthly listeners in a single month. But rather the evolution of this number over several consecutive months. If it climbs or remains stable, the artist has achieved his goal of creating a community of committed fans.
This proves that the artist is not a “one-hit-wonder” like so many others in the history of music. If, on the contrary, the statistics are falling month by month, then there’s no doubt cause for concern. This underlines the importance of a comprehensive approach to evaluating an artist’s success, considering monthly listeners and other key metrics.
Also, the higher the number of streams, the more money Spotify will pay out to rights holders. From a purely financial, image, and marketing point of view, artists gain from an increase in their monthly listeners.
But do they really matter?
However, these statistics are unstable and cannot be used to assess an artist’s long-term potential. As mentioned above, they tend to rise rapidly after a targeted event. By definition, they are often part of an “exception” logic, which gives no guarantee of an artist’s future career or ability to generate streams over several months or even years.
It’s also possible that these streams will be driven by a single song or two and that the public will listen to very little of what the artist has to offer. As we know, careers are built over long periods so that these statistics may give an illusion.
Above all, they can vary drastically from month to month. At the major labels, teams of analysts analyze these data and monitor them very closely. At Soundiiz, we are convinced that monthly listeners are essential but must not be the tree that hides the forest. Their potential increase must be integrated into a long-term development strategy. So that renewed visibility and streams can create a virtuous circle and benefit all parties.
How to transfer your music streaming data to or from Spotify?
Spotify has been the world leader in music streaming for years, attracting more users yearly. After years spent on Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, TIDAL, or YouTube Music, you may want to try the Swedish streaming service.
But how do you switch from one platform to another without losing everything you’ve spent years carefully building? How do you avoid losing anything in the transition? And, above all, how do you make the data transfer as quick as it is painless? Soundiiz is the solution: we’ve been transferring data for years!
Based on technology that enables us to make precise matches between your source and destination platforms, we can transfer your playlists, albums, and favorites from Apple Music to Spotify, from Deezer to Spotify, from TIDAL to Spotify, from YouTube Music to Spotify, from Amazon Music to Spotify, and so on. And the reverse is also possible! If you want to leave Spotify for another service, you can do so with Soundiiz.
Just go to our Transfer section and let us guide you!
