When it comes to evaluating your success as a creator, metrics matter which is why major audio platforms are giving creators direct access to streaming analytics for their content. Both Spotify and Apple Music have developed their own analytics dashboards to offer creators a high-level view of how their music is performing. By properly navigating these new dashboards, you’ll be able to uncover deeper insights into how you can improve your overall content strategy. Here’s an overview of the different analytics dashboards with a breakdown of which metrics matter most.

Spotify For Artists Streaming Analytics

In order to access streaming analytics on Spotify, you must first set up a Spotify for Artists account. Once an account has been created, you can log in and view Spotify’s streaming analytics that are broken down into 3 sections:

Audience

The ‘Audience’ section will give you a better understanding of who is listening to their music by providing more information about:

  • Demographics– Breakdown your audience by age, gender, and what features they use to discover and play music (i.e. Spotify Playlists & Radio, Their Saved Music & Playlist, and Other People’s Playlists). Use these metrics to define your target audience and structure any promotional campaigns.
  • Location– Keep track of where people are listening to your music around the world. This information can be useful for planning the route for your next tour.
  • Similar Artists- Gain a better understanding of what other artists your audience is listening to. If you’re looking to collaborate, this information can help you decide who to work with next.
  • Live Listeners- Get a snapshot of the total number of people that are actively listening to your music in real time. See how your audience changes over time with a graph you can filter by daily or monthly listeners.
  • Followers– Understand who your most engaged audiences are. Followers are users that actively hit the ‘Follow’ button on your artist profile. These users will automatically have your music added to their ‘Release Radar’ in addition to concert recommendation emails when you are headed their way. Similar to YouTube subscribers, followers are your most loyal listeners so focus on ways to increase this number over time.

Songs

The ‘Song’ section will showcase streaming analytics specifically about track performance for your top 200 songs. Your songs will be organized by the number of streams they have received (from most to least). For each track you will be able to view the following metrics:

  • Streams– the total number of accumulated streams
  • Listeners– total unique listers
  • Saves– the total number of times listeners on Spotify have hit + or ❤ to save your music to their library and favorites.
  • First Release– the date the track was released on Spotify.

Similar to the ‘Audience’ section, you will be able to leverage time filters to view how the data has changed over time.

Playlists

Getting added to a Spotify playlist is key to reaching new listeners and growing your audience. This section allows you to track what different playlists your music is being added to. Similar to the ‘Song’ section, for each playlist you can view metrics for:

  • Author– who added your track to the playlist.
  • Listeners– total unique listers
  • Streams– total number of accumulated streams
  • Date Added– the specific date the track was added to the playlist.

Apple Music For Artists Streaming Analytics

Earlier this year, Apple Music rolled out their own streaming analytics dashboard, Apple Music for Artists. Apple describes it as “everything you need to understand about your music’s impact across Apple Music and iTunes.” Similar to Spotify, Apple Music for Artists is broken into different sections:

Overview

From the main ‘Overview’ screen, you will see a general overview of your music’s performance. Artists will be able to review:

  • Total Plays– total number of accumulated plays which Apple considers to be 30 seconds or longer.
  • Radio Spins– total times your track was played on one of Apple’s radio stations.
  • Song Purchases– total number of songs purchased.
  • Album Purchases– total number of albums purchased.

Additionally, from the main ‘Overview’ screen Apple Music will automatically identify and highlight milestones and “all-time bests” via a feed (i.e. surpassing 1MM all time plays).

Trends

This is where users can access different line graphs to see how content trends over time.

Places

This section includes an interactive map where you can see where your listeners are located around the world. You can even click and zoom to access more specific information about countries and cities.

Your Music

Similar to Spotify, Apple Music’s playlists are key for content discovery. This section will give you a better understanding of what playlists are driving the most plays of your songs and the demographics of your top listeners.

Currently, Apple Music for Artists is in limited beta and has only been rolled out to a few thousand artists. Keep an eye out over the next few months for a larger roll-out.

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