“Have you been listening to your favorite rappers since Day 1?” asks Spotify’s latest spin-off website, complete with a big red button tagged ‘Prove It’.
Proving it involves signing in to Spotify to be told which hip-hop stars you were listening to early. “An exclusive group of fans that have been riding with an artist the longest,” in Spotify’s words.
“This isn’t a measure of streaming an artist the most. It’s a measure of how early you listened to an artist on Spotify… In this case, we look at the first 15% of fans who listened to an artist on Spotify, before others.”
People who qualify will get virtual cards denoting gold (if they were in the earliest 7-15% of listeners), platinum (4-6%) or diamond (1-3%) status, which can then be shown off on socials.
It’s a fun idea, albeit one restricted by the fact that the data only goes back to 2013: so fans who were listening on Spotify before that (or, heaven forfend, on old-fangled vinyl, CDs, mixtapes etc) may be denied their rightful bragging honours.
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