How Do Algorithmic Playlists Impact Artists & Musical Tastes?
A recent forecast by Goldman Sachs paints an optimistic picture for the global recorded music market, projecting revenues to potentially soar to $50.1 billion by 2030. However, understanding the current landscape leading up to this projection is crucial. Streaming has emerged as the primary catalyst for the music industry's revenue surge, skyrocketing from a modest 19.8% in 2015 to a dominant 67% in 2022.
In this streaming revolution, one platform stands out among the rest: Spotify. Holding a commanding 31% share of the global music streaming market, Spotify dictates the trends in music consumption, catering to its massive user base of 500 million. Following behind are competitors like Apple Music (15%), Amazon Music (13%), Tencent Music (13%), and YouTube Music (8%).
Delving deeper into the realm of algorithmic playlists, Your Music Marketing (YMM) conducted an analysis based on over 25.3 billion Spotify streams from 317 artists. YMM categorized these artists into four groups: Emerging Artists, Artists In Development, Established Artists, and Stars.
Emerging Artists: Artists with fewer than 1,000 Spotify followers.
Artists In Development: Artists with at least 1,000 Spotify followers and several 10K+ unique listeners, often propelled by a single popular track.
Established Artists: Artists with more than 10,000 Spotify followers and over 100,000 unique listeners, known for multiple successful singles.
Stars: Top artists in their genre with several hundred thousand followers and over one million unique listeners.
YMM's analysis revealed that Artists In Development constituted 56.5% of playlist representation, with Established Artists following at 26.1%. Emerging Artists and Stars each accounted for 8.7% of the sample size. Additionally, the analysis covered 10 music sub-genres grouped into four main genres: Afropop, Electronic, Pop, and Rap.
What impact do algorithmic playlists have on listening habits?
Programmed listening, including both editorial and algorithmic playlists, comprised 34.3% of total streams analyzed. Of this, algorithmic playlists alone contributed 61%—more than half of playlist-generated streams on Spotify. Radios, constituting 36% of programmed listening, dominated this space, with the remaining algorithmic playlists contributing 25%. Editorial playlists, on the other hand, accounted for a smaller share, representing only 11% of programmed listening.
Among the streams analyzed, Radios and Daily Mix emerged as the most popular sources, generating a combined 86% of streams from algorithmic playlists, followed by Release Radar, Discover Weekly, and On Repeat playlists.
If you’re an emerging artist—work that algorithm.
Sourced by: Ashley King - Digital Music News
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