The latest study of Spotify claims that placement on the streaming service’s Today’s Top Hits playlist can be worth between $116k and $163k to an artist. The study was carried out by Luis Aguiar and Joel Waldfogel of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Some highlights: “Appearing on Today’s Top Hits, a list with 18.5 million followers during the sample period, raises a song’s eventual streams by almost 20 million, which is almost a quarter of the average value of streams for songs that make that playlist,” explained the authors.
“Being on the Global Top 50 list raises a song’s streams by about 3 million, or by about 3.3 percent of the average streams for songs that make the Global Top 50.”
And something that independent labels may be keen to discuss further: “Most of the benefit of the global lists accrues to US-origin major-label songs” – although the study adds that “the New Music Friday lists have larger representation from domestic and independent-label music”.
Interestingly – if they’re correct, of course – it’s Spotify’s Latin playlists that appear to be the biggest revenue uplifts for rightsholders. Viva Latino! is calculated to offer between $303k and $424k of additional royalties to a featured artist, while Baila Reggaeton is pegged at $164k-$230k. There’s plenty more to dig in to in the full paper.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…