It might not be the vacations with out Spotify Wrapped, the ever present advertising scheme that includes Spotify repackaging the huge quantity of information it collects about customers into enjoyable personalised insights prepared for social media. Like it or detest it, Wrapped has confirmed irresistible and the MIDiA crew is way from immune.

So we did what we do greatest. We collected Wrapped information from 10 MIDiA members who use Spotify to seek out the common variety of genres, artists, and songs we listened to on Spotify in 2023. The outcomes laid naked most of the developments we have now been finding out. No surprise artists battle to interrupt by means of the noise and discover repeat listeners after we stream a median of three,272 totally different songs per 12 months! Nonetheless, the information additionally revealed some surprises and paradoxes. 

After all, the main caveat is that we’re wanting on the listening behaviours of leisure firm staff, together with music analysts — removed from the common Spotify consumer. To be clear, this was a lightweight (and semi-fun) train designed for instance what Wrapped can say about listening habits, not a proper proof base. With that mentioned, let’s break down what we discovered.

Style is fluid, certainly

We listened to a median of 55 genres every (with a excessive of 174!), reflecting what we already know: listeners are more and more genre-fluid. After all, a part of what has modified is the categorisation itself. Spotify classifies music into a whole bunch of sub-genres. No matter how lengthy these sub-genres have existed, we didn’t start classifying them and measuring their consumption till comparatively just lately in music historical past. Nonetheless, as tradition fragments, there are absolutely extra sub-genres as we speak than existed previously and as we speak’s listeners are much less more likely to be genre-dependent in any respect. 

We listened to only two songs per artist

At the moment’s listeners additionally appear to orient their listening round songs greater than artists — whereas listening to extra of each than ever earlier than. We listened to a median of two,001 artists and three,272 songs every. For reference, our prime streamer listened to over 6,000 totally different artists in 2023, and over 11,000 songs! 

This interprets to a median of fewer than two songs per artist. Whereas extra artists are getting publicity to audiences, it’s more and more exhausting to seek out repeat listeners as customers unfold their listening throughout a wider vary of each songs and artists than ever. This can be why the broad sentiment from MIDiA employees and pals alike is that our prime songs really feel…a bit random. I like Mitski, however was stunned to see ‘Bug Like An Angel’ as my prime music — and much more stunned to see it had solely 29 performs. It appears we’re giving many songs an identical variety of performs every, moderately than taking part in a few favorite songs way more than others. The result’s that our “prime” songs are a bit arbitrary. In different phrases, the distinction between the songs in my prime 5 and prime 100 might be only a handful of performs.

Streams don’t equal followers — and vice versa

Prime artists had been a special story. Most individuals felt their prime artists made sense and, in actual fact, tended to be related 12 months after 12 months (even when prime songs different and weren’t essentially related to prime artists). Maybe artist fandom is chopping by means of, however within the grand scheme of issues, among the many hundreds of songs we take heed to it isn’t mirrored in precise consumption as a lot as one would possibly count on. There may be way more to fandom than streams. 

Within the streaming economic system, are normies extra helpful than music-heads?

This results in one other paradox. Typical knowledge says that the music trade ought to go after the largest music followers — those that pay attention essentially the most and are eager to find. However as our information displays, one of the best place an artist might be in proper now could be to have followers who’ve listened to them on repeat for years and aren’t bothered about discovering anything.

Not all streams are created equal. Several types of listeners provide totally different worth to totally different stakeholders:

• Listeners who’re pushed by artist fandom stream a handful of favorite artists extra, however much less music general — driving extra worth for artists

• Listeners who’re pushed by general music fandom / discovery take heed to extra music general, however are much less more likely to concentrate on any particular person artist — driving extra worth for DSPs and file labels 

• It’s extra advantageous to ring a bell with a normie than with a music-head who’s more likely to unfold listening throughout many favourites

Regardless, the stats additionally make it clear why few artists can depend upon streaming for significant income. In line with Billboard’s streaming royalty calculator, my 29 performs of ‘Bug Like An Angel’ would generate about 14 cents. Positive, I streamed extra Mitski songs than simply that monitor, and for some artists, a handful of cents per fan might add as much as a large quantity. However as customers unfold their listening throughout extra songs than ever, the worth for an artist of getting a shopper’s “prime music” of the 12 months is declining.

What are we actually even measuring?

You will need to observe that Wrapped is an incomplete image of listening habits. Many staffers caveated that they do equally as a lot, or extra, listening on platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, and BBC Sounds. We additionally all use streaming platforms for various issues: Spotify is perhaps for placing on playlists whereas we work, whereas YouTube would possibly get the extra deliberately searched-for songs and artists. The identical listener might have very totally different Wrapped-s for every platform they use. 

As MIDiA’s Kriss Thakrar put it, possibly Spotify Wrapped is much less an indicator of how we love music and specific fandom, and extra simply an indicator of how we use Spotify. Or, as MIDiA’s Rutger Rosenborg countered, “how Spotify makes use of us”.