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Surprises from Analyzing Spotify Streaming Data

60 points by chadmhorner 8y ago

elektor 8y ago
This is pretty cool. The one factoid that stood out to me was everyone flocking to listen to SAD! by XXXTENTACION the day after he was assassinated. I'm surprised this wasn't the case with Mac Miller's death, although maybe it did it just didn't top the charts.
- chadmhorner 8y ago
  Indeed, Mac did certainly see an increase in streams after his death. It just wasn't of the same magnitude: https://infogram.com/xxx-mac-miller-comparision-1hxr4zlxzp856yo?live https://infogram.com/xxx-mac-miller-comparision-1hxr4zlxzp85... (and again, note that this is only counts streams for songs that were in the Global Top 200 for a given day)
caractacus 8y ago
The data is hugely skewed because they're only looking at the top 200 each day. There are 50m tracks on streaming services and the popularity of the long tail is growing. The 500 most streamed tracks in the US received just 10.7% of total audio streams in 2018, down from 14.6% in 2017. There were 36.3m different tracks streamed across the year, up from 33.2m in 2017. https://cdn.mbw.44bytes.net/files/2019/01/BuzzAngle-Music-2018-US-Report-Industry.pdf https://cdn.mbw.44bytes.net/files/2019/01/BuzzAngle-Music-20...
- chadmhorner 8y ago
  Agreed we're only looking at the top 200! Tried to be upfront about that :)
  - jakequade 8y ago
    Why? You can't claim to have any real insights on such a vast platform when you're capturing such a tiny percentage.
    - craftinator 8y ago
      He actually can claim it, and does so. And that tiny percentage he captures, well that's called a "sample". When you take a sample from a larger population, it is safe to assume it represents some of the same properties as the population as a whole. Figuring out which properties are shared is one of the reasons humans aren't being replaced by machines entirely in the analysis department. It is your job as the reader to invalidate some of his specific claims using sound logic and evidence. Which of his claims are you refuting?
- 3xblah 8y ago
  Cassette and vinyl sales are both up from 2017. What strikes me about a report like this is that the report is comfortable comparing sales to "consumption". Are these really the same? Third parties do not necessarily know how many times someone cues up a track on their turntable or tape deck. (Unless today's turntables and tape decks are being engineered to "phone home".) Instead they measure sales of physical media containing copies. On the other hand, with respect to so-called "streaming" the report says about 85% of this type of consumption is from subscriptions. But curiously the report does not measure subscription sales/renewals. Maybe I missed something.
  - saaaaaam 8y ago
    Cassette and vinyl sales are both up - but still represent a tiny fraction of music sales - vinyl Is about 3% or 4% of sales in the UK. As regards comparing consumption to sales: this is a fairly standard “equivalent” used in the music industry. I’m unclear on what else you are saying. You say “so-called ‘streaming’” but why is it “so-called”? It’s pretty clear that the market has shifted to access over ownership or “so-called ‘streaming’”. Subscription streaming services are growing rapidly year-on-year. The stats are easy to find - perhaps the author didn’t feel it was necessary to quote numbers that are fairly widely discussed in mainstream and specialist media.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- autokad 8y ago
  wow, thats an amazing long tail. now I dont feel so bad not knowing a single one of the artists. I'm in the tail, just like everyone else
svantana 8y ago
Nice work, though I didn't find any actual surprises in the list. Also, looking at the data source (spotifycharts.com), they offer csv downloads of all the charts, which makes it a weird choice to showcase this apparent html scraper library/service?
sherlock_h 8y ago
Interesting to see that almost all of non-US top hits are seemingly Latin American.
- jameane 8y ago
  On a somewhat related topic - the How I Built This episode with the Zumba founders is fascinating. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/national-public-radio/how-i-built-this/e/zumba-beto-perez-alberto-perlman-48691075 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/national-public-radio/how-i... spoiler alert One of their biggest revenue streams is with artists and music labels launching their songs in Zumba classes via the "official" playlists. Zumba is an excellent promotion channel for Latin music/island music and other "tropical" music. The non-english language music is huge and works completely different than the rest of the pop charts.
- thomasfortes 8y ago
  Not that surprising given the fact the spanish has around 44 million speakers in US and probably most of them are from countries in Latin America.
unparagoned 8y ago
I've been wondering for years what people listen to. Spotify and YouTube have kept me in a bubble and I have no clue what people are listening to. I'm hoping there's a few gems in these lists.
saaaaaam 8y ago
No surprises. I kept scrolling to find the “surprise”. I would have been much more interested if you’d said “we can scrape Spotify: here is what we found when X” As it happens I’ve “requested access” but nearly hit the back button because I was looking for the surprise and didn’t see it.
fallingfrog 8y ago
I’m getting old. Never heard of a single one of these artists.
- randie63 8y ago
  don't worry, you did not miss much. most of the new chart music is pure cancer. and I'm 22

60 points by chadmhorner 8y ago

This is pretty cool. The one factoid that stood out to me was everyone flocking to listen to SAD! by XXXTENTACION the day after he was assassinated. I'm surprised this wasn't the case with Mac Miller's death, although maybe it did it just didn't top the charts.

chadmhorner 8y ago
Indeed, Mac did certainly see an increase in streams after his death. It just wasn't of the same magnitude: https://infogram.com/xxx-mac-miller-comparision-1hxr4zlxzp856yo?live https://infogram.com/xxx-mac-miller-comparision-1hxr4zlxzp85... (and again, note that this is only counts streams for songs that were in the Global Top 200 for a given day)

caractacus 8y ago

The data is hugely skewed because they're only looking at the top 200 each day. There are 50m tracks on streaming services and the popularity of the long tail is growing. The 500 most streamed tracks in the US received just 10.7% of total audio streams in 2018, down from 14.6% in 2017. There were 36.3m different tracks streamed across the year, up from 33.2m in 2017. https://cdn.mbw.44bytes.net/files/2019/01/BuzzAngle-Music-2018-US-Report-Industry.pdf https://cdn.mbw.44bytes.net/files/2019/01/BuzzAngle-Music-20...

chadmhorner 8y ago
Agreed we're only looking at the top 200! Tried to be upfront about that :)
- jakequade 8y ago
  Why? You can't claim to have any real insights on such a vast platform when you're capturing such a tiny percentage.
  - craftinator 8y ago
    He actually can claim it, and does so. And that tiny percentage he captures, well that's called a "sample". When you take a sample from a larger population, it is safe to assume it represents some of the same properties as the population as a whole. Figuring out which properties are shared is one of the reasons humans aren't being replaced by machines entirely in the analysis department. It is your job as the reader to invalidate some of his specific claims using sound logic and evidence. Which of his claims are you refuting?
3xblah 8y ago
Cassette and vinyl sales are both up from 2017. What strikes me about a report like this is that the report is comfortable comparing sales to "consumption". Are these really the same? Third parties do not necessarily know how many times someone cues up a track on their turntable or tape deck. (Unless today's turntables and tape decks are being engineered to "phone home".) Instead they measure sales of physical media containing copies. On the other hand, with respect to so-called "streaming" the report says about 85% of this type of consumption is from subscriptions. But curiously the report does not measure subscription sales/renewals. Maybe I missed something.
- saaaaaam 8y ago
  Cassette and vinyl sales are both up - but still represent a tiny fraction of music sales - vinyl Is about 3% or 4% of sales in the UK. As regards comparing consumption to sales: this is a fairly standard “equivalent” used in the music industry. I’m unclear on what else you are saying. You say “so-called ‘streaming’” but why is it “so-called”? It’s pretty clear that the market has shifted to access over ownership or “so-called ‘streaming’”. Subscription streaming services are growing rapidly year-on-year. The stats are easy to find - perhaps the author didn’t feel it was necessary to quote numbers that are fairly widely discussed in mainstream and specialist media.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
autokad 8y ago
wow, thats an amazing long tail. now I dont feel so bad not knowing a single one of the artists. I'm in the tail, just like everyone else

svantana 8y ago

Nice work, though I didn't find any actual surprises in the list. Also, looking at the data source (spotifycharts.com), they offer csv downloads of all the charts, which makes it a weird choice to showcase this apparent html scraper library/service?

sherlock_h 8y ago

Interesting to see that almost all of non-US top hits are seemingly Latin American.

jameane 8y ago
On a somewhat related topic - the How I Built This episode with the Zumba founders is fascinating. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/national-public-radio/how-i-built-this/e/zumba-beto-perez-alberto-perlman-48691075 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/national-public-radio/how-i... spoiler alert One of their biggest revenue streams is with artists and music labels launching their songs in Zumba classes via the "official" playlists. Zumba is an excellent promotion channel for Latin music/island music and other "tropical" music. The non-english language music is huge and works completely different than the rest of the pop charts.
thomasfortes 8y ago
Not that surprising given the fact the spanish has around 44 million speakers in US and probably most of them are from countries in Latin America.

unparagoned 8y ago

I've been wondering for years what people listen to. Spotify and YouTube have kept me in a bubble and I have no clue what people are listening to. I'm hoping there's a few gems in these lists.

saaaaaam 8y ago

No surprises. I kept scrolling to find the “surprise”. I would have been much more interested if you’d said “we can scrape Spotify: here is what we found when X” As it happens I’ve “requested access” but nearly hit the back button because I was looking for the surprise and didn’t see it.

fallingfrog 8y ago

I’m getting old. Never heard of a single one of these artists.

randie63 8y ago
don't worry, you did not miss much. most of the new chart music is pure cancer. and I'm 22