Case Studies
After 3 years testing and tracking our marketing methods for Spotify growth, we'd like to share a deep dive into all the analytics behind how our marketing services trigger the Spotify algorithm, and to what effect.
For those of you who want the quick spark notes conclusion, here it is:
The SINGLE most valuable thing you can do as an Artist to grow on Spotify (in our experience) is to get your music on as many relevant playlists as possible, specifically ones that:
1) Fit your niche genre really really well
2) Have lots of songs from popular artists and similar artists in your genre, whose audiences also fit your music
3) Allow your music to stay "playlisted" for long periods of time (ideally 1 year minimum)
If the playlists are a great fit for your music and you can stay on them for an extended period of time (ideally around a year or more), your music data gets associated very quickly with your ideal 'Similar Artists' and 'ideal Listeners', which causes the Spotify algorithm to take all the accumulated streaming data, perfectly match your music to your ideal listeners and fans, and start boosting and recommending it via algorithmic playlists like Radio and Discover Weekly. And all of that leads to even higher save rates and listener rates and gets your music added to even more listener created playlists, which again fuels the algorithm even more, which we like to call the Circle of Life. (We're 100% singing The Lion King song in our head as we type this.) And that's it. That's the Spotify game.
THIS is why our marketing features like ArtistPool and Anthem Silver and Anthem Gold have been SO effective for our artists, because we get their music placed on great fitting playlists for a long period of time.
Below you'll see examples from a variety of independent artists across different genres of music, all of which point to the same conclusion above. These examples also include screen shots and data from
Spotify For Artists, so that you can see the actual results. *We will continue to frequently update this Case Studies page throughout the year with more examples.
Artist Case Studies: (click on a name to view the case study)
Belu Rodriguez Kuhn (coming soon)
Anthem Worship (coming soon)
Shawna Starbird (coming soon)
Sophiv (coming soon)
Mass Anthem
Overview
Mass Anthem is a well known band in the Christian pop and cover music scene. We started working with Mass Anthem to market their Waymaker Worship album back in late 2020, because it wasn't performing as well out of the gate as their past album releases. At this time their Spotify monthly listeners was bottoming out at around 200k, which was the lowest it had been in years.
Strategy
The strategy for Mass Anthem was to get their Waymaker Worship music on as many worship Spotify playlists as possible and keep them there for as long as possible, with the goal of triggering the algorithm, and we did this with the TAC Spotify Playlist network via first ArtistPool, then Anthem Silver, and now yearly Anthem Gold.
Waymaker Worship Album: Spotify Results as of 11.5.22
This project was launched June 2020 and was getting around 50k total streams per month. Two years of consistent worship playlist marketing across roughly 30-50 playlists has lead to a 5x in streams, now getting over 250k monthly album streams, with over 50% generated from the algorithm. Although much of the growth is seen in the top 3 songs below, the remaining 7 singles have all done a minimum 2x-3x on average as well.
Photo 1: First 12 months streams
Photo 2: Latest 12 months streams
Waymaker Worship Single: Stupid Deep / Sinking Deep
This is single has performed the best and did a 3.3x-5x since release, now hitting over 5k-6k streams daily
Photo 3: First 12 months streams
Photo 4: Latest 12 months streams
Photo 5: Streaming Sources (56% algorithm)
Photo 6: Currently on over 9k playlists
Waymaker Worship Single: Above All / All In All
This single recently did a 10x on year two, going from 200 daily streams to over 2k+
Photo 7: First 12 months streams
Photo 8: Latest 12 months streams
Photo 9: Streaming Sources (63% algorithm)
Photo 10: Currently on over 2k playlists
Waymaker Worship Single: The Blessing / Doxology
This single recently did a 5x on year two (out of nowhere), going from about 80 daily streams to over 400+.
Photo 11: First 12 months streams
Photo 12: Latest 12 months streams
Photo 13: Streaming Sources (56% algorithm)
Photo 14: Currently on over 573 playlists
Takeaway
Even though they had a large following at the time of the release, it still wasn't getting streamed enough to perform well with the algorithm. And the songs weren't initially on very many listener playlists. But two years of consistent placement and streaming gave Spotify enough data to start recommending their music to the ideal listeners.
Prediction
We anticipate this entire Waymaker Worship project to minimum 2x to 400k monthly streams by early 2023, with Stupid Deep / Sinking Deep easily crossing 20k+ daily streams.
1.19.23 Update: MA already crushed all our prediction numbers by mid Jan. 2023, and the Waymaker Worship album did a 20x from 50k monthly streams to 1M+, and they are now just under 700k monthly listeners (up from 200k). Their music is also now on over 150k+ playlists (yes, read that again). We anticipate Mass Anthem crossing 1M+ monthly Spotify listeners in 2023.
Describe your image
MASS ANTHEM CONTINUED (11.5.22)
Reckless Love (Single)
This song was released in 2018 and was getting around 4-5k daily streams. This song recently did a 5x to now getting between 15k and 23k daily streams and is now on over 25k playlists. Note: this song wasn't even marketed recently, BUT because all the other worship music was getting picked up by the algorithm, this one got swept up with that data, too.
Photo 1: Last 12 months streams
Photo 2: Streaming Sources (72% algorithm)
Photo 3: Currently on 25.7k+ playlists
Mass Anthem (Full Overview)
At the time of all these algorithm streaming bumps, we've seen Mass Anthem's monthly listeners go from around 200k-250k to just over 380k, and daily streams as a whole 2x from about 20k to 40k
Photo 4: Algorithm streams all categories
Photo 5: Algorithm Radio streams per song
Photo 6: Streaming Sources (56% algorithm)
Photo 7: Currently on 63k+ playlists
1.19.23 Update: Reckless love is now on just under 100k playlists and has crossed 10M+ streams, and is averaging 8k-10k saves per month.
Punch Parade
Overview
Punch Parade is a mainstream pop band that TAC began marketing late November, 2020. At the time, Punch Parade had just under 2k monthly Spotify listeners, and they'll tell you they felt pretty defeated after what they spent on music production and music videos. After we worked through their data, we found that they were sitting on a song with a SIGNIFICANTLY higher save rate than all their other songs. Even though it was only getting around 200 daily streams, we knew it was meant to perform MUCH higher.
Strategy
The goal of their marketing plan was to get their song with the highest save rate (Look At Me Now) on as many mainstream pop playlists as possible, so that their music would be associated with their ideal similar pop artists. For that we utilized ArtistPool, Anthem Silver, and Anthem Gold. In addition to that, we identified that their two biggest audiences for that song were located in Japan and India, so we also ran consistent Facebook and Instagram ads promoting their music to those specific locations, growing playlists with their hit song at the top and the rest of their singles spread throughout.
Spotify Results
Fast forward about 1.5-2 years and they hit 82k+ monthly listeners, their music is on over 13k different playlists, and Look At Me Now is now their break-out single and gets between 5k-7k daily streams, 30% of those coming from the algorithm. We also helped them secure a significant publishing deal with a prestigious publisher called MusicBed in 2022 by leveraging their Spotify success.
Photo 1: Spotify Listeners since 2015
Photo 2: Spotify Streams since 2015
Photo 3: Spotify Followers since 2015
Photo 4: Spotify Source of streams (30% algorithm -- up from zero)
Photo 5: Spotify Algorithm generated streams
Photo 6: Spotify Playlist adds
Photo 7: Spotify Look At Me Now streams (first 12 months)
Photo 8: Spotify Look At Me Now streams (latest 12 months)
Results (other platforms)
The Spotify marketing also spilled over significantly into all their other music platforms. Look At Me Now gained 134k+ Apple Music streams, 10k+ Shazams, and Punch Parade landed their first significant Apple Music playlist called TikTok by Digster Japan, all organically.
Photo 9: Apple Music lifetime streams
Photo 10: Apple Music streaming breakdown
Photo 11: Apple Music listeners
Photo 12: Apple Music shazams
Look At Me Now gained 60k+ Amazon Music streams + their fanbase has now grown from 100 fans to 2.1k+ fans, which is the most of any of their platforms. (growing at 10+ followers per day)
Photo 13: Amazon Music overview
Photo 14: Amazon Music streams
Photo 15: Amazon Music fans
Look At Me Now has gained 200k+ organic Youtube views combined across their official music video, lyric video, and generic Distrokid video by Topic, plus they've gained just under 1,000 channel subscribers, which will soon become another revenue stream.
Photo 16: Youtube Look At Me Now music video
Photo 17: Youtube Look At Me Now topic video
Photo 18: Youtube views growth
Photo 19: Youtube channel analytics
Prediction
Much like Mass Anthem's Reckless Love, we expect Look At Me Now to easily hit 20k+ daily streams in the near future, and for Punch Parade to easily cross 100k monthly Spotify listeners by early 2023.
You can view Punch Parade's Spotify by clicking HERE.
SioVera
Overview
SioVera is a Christian music artist that released her first worship-cover album in 2020. She was a completely brand new artist at the time, with zero following and zero music released across any platform.
Strategy
The strategy for SioVera was pretty simple: get her music on as many worship Spotify playlists as possible and keep them there for as long as possible, all with the goal of getting her music associated with her ideal worship artists. For this we used the TAC Spotify Playlist network via ArtistPool, Anthem Silver, and Anthem Gold, and got her placed on around 30-50 playlists.
Spotify Results as of 11.6.22
SioVera showed consistent and steady growth up until the second year, when the algorithm suddenly spiked to over 57% across all her music as a whole, causing a 3.5-5x from around 2k-3k monthly listeners to now 10.6k+ monthly listeners. So many of her songs "hit" the algorithm at the same time that we're going to showcase them below.
Photo 1: Spotify Listeners since 2015
Photo 2: Spotify Streams since 2015
Photo 3: Spotify Followers since 2015
Photo 4: Spotify source of streams (57% algorithm -- up from zero)
Photo 5: Spotify Algorithm generated streams
Photo 6: Spotify Playlist adds
Promises Never Fail // Tis So Sweet
Photo 7: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 8: Spotify source of streams (64% algorithm)
Awake My Soul
Photo 9: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 10: Spotify source of streams (68% algorithm)
Graves Into Gardens // Great Are You Lord (Spanish Version) - This song only had about 3-5 playlists consistently pushing it, but they were a great fit with significant traffic, which led to the results.
Photo 11: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 12: Spotify source of streams (44% algorithm)
Faithful Now // This We Know
Photo 13: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 14: Spotify source of streams (55% algorithm)
Build My Life // Worthy Of It All
Photo 15: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 16: Spotify source of streams (57% algorithm)
Available // Have It All
Photo 17: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 18: Spotify source of streams (41% algorithm)
Peace Be Still // Tremble
Photo 19: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 20: Spotify source of streams (58% algorithm)
Takeaway
As you can see, her music isn't on a TON of playlists (762 total , 30-50 in our network), and most of her songs are on less than 100 total playlists. But the playlists she IS on are a great fit. She doesn't have a ton of followers, and many of her songs had been performing at very low levels for almost 2 years. But the algorithm eventually gathered enough data to begin recommending her music to her ideal listeners, which is when she started to take off and crossed 10k+ monthly listeners. This goes to show that even older music will perform well if you give it some marketing assistance!
Prediction
We wouldn't be surprised to see her cross 20k+ monthly listeners before 2023, and a 5x to around 50,000 monthly listeners is definitely in the picture in 2023, assuming her marketing strategy continues.
1.31.23 Update: Siovera crossed 28k+ monthly listeners with her latest release 'Known' and is now on over 1500 playlists.
Anaiah Nikole
Overview
Anaiah Nikole is a Christian music artist that released her debut worship cover album in 2021. She was a completely brand new artist at the time, with zero following and zero music released across any platform.
Strategy
The strategy for Anaiah was the same as with SioVera: get her music on as many worship Spotify playlists as possible and keep them there for as long as possible, all with the goal of getting her music associated with her ideal worship artists. For this we used the TAC Spotify Playlist network via ArtistPool, Anthem Silver, and Anthem Gold.
Spotify Results as of 11.7.22
Anaiah showed consistent and steady growth throughout her first year, and at about month 6 of her second year is when the algorithm suddenly spiked to over 63% across all her music as a whole, causing a 2.5-3x from about 3k monthly listeners to now 8.5k-9k+ monthly listeners. Many of her songs "hit" the algorithm at the same time, which we will showcase below.
Photo 1: Spotify Listeners since 2015
Photo 2: Spotify Streams since 2015
Photo 3: Spotify Followers since 2015
Photo 4: Spotify source of streams (63% algorithm -- up from zero)
Photo 5: Spotify Algorithm generated streams
Photo 6: Spotify Playlist adds
Defender
Photo 7: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 8: Spotify source of streams (58% algorithm)
Oh The Cross
Photo 9: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 10: Spotify source of streams (75% algorithm)
Peace
Photo 11: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 12: Spotify source of streams (65% algorithm)
Called Me Higher
Photo 13: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 14: Spotify source of streams (71% algorithm)
Jesus What A Savior
Photo 15: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 16: Spotify source of streams (58% algorithm)
Miracles
Photo 17: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 18: Spotify source of streams (63% algorithm)
Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)
Photo 19: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 20: Spotify source of streams (61% algorithm)
King of Kings
Photo 21: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 22: Spotify source of streams (44% algorithm)
Communion
Photo 23: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 24: Spotify source of streams (48% algorithm)
God I Look To You
Photo 25: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 26: Spotify source of streams (43% algorithm)
Takeaway
Very similar to SioVera, Anaiah's music isn't on a TON of playlists (488 total, 30-50 in our network), and many of her songs are on less than 100 total playlists. But the playlists her music is on are a great fit. She also doesn't have a ton of followers, and many of her songs had been performing at very low levels for over a full year. But again, the algorithm eventually gathered enough data to begin recommending her music to her ideal listeners, which is when she started to take off. This again goes to show that music is never "too old" to start performing well. It just takes some time and data!
Prediction
We wouldn't be surprised to see her easily cross 10k+ monthly listeners within 2022, and a 5x to around 50,000 monthly listeners is definitely in the picture in 2023, assuming her marketing strategy continues.
You can view Anaiah Nikole's Spotify by clicking HERE.
Mariannah y Diego
Overview
Mariannah y Diego are Spanish Christian music duo that began working with TAC in February, 2022. At that time they were getting around 600 daily streams with just under 10k monthly listeners.
Strategy
The strategy for M&D was the same as with the rest: get their music on as many Spanish worship Spotify playlists as possible and keep them there for as long as possible, all with the goal of getting their music associated with her ideal Spanish Christian artists. They first signed up for ArtistPool, later on added Anthem Silver (which is where their first big algorithm push got triggered), and then they transitioned into Anthem Gold, which is where they currently are now and where they're seeing most of their current growth from. Via Anthem Gold, we are running custom ads to their top Spotify audience locations to grow custom playlists filled with both their music and their top Similar Artists' music, which has a supercharging affect on the algorithm.
Spotify Results as of 11.7.22
A few months into their Anthem Silver, the algorithm suddenly spiked and is now at 69% across all their music as a whole, a 7x from about 10k monthly listeners to now 70k+ monthly listeners. Their music also started to get noticed by the editorial playlists, and now is currently on a handful of popular Spotify Spanish Christian editorials, which accounts for about 10% of their streams.
Photo 1: Spotify Listeners since 2015
Photo 2: Spotify Streams since 2015
Photo 3: Spotify Followers since 2015
(Note: It appears that they may have paid for fake followers at a couple points prior to TAC, but since marketing with TAC, you'll notice a healthy and consistent upward trend in followers.)
Photo 4: Spotify source of streams (69% algorithm -- up from zero)
Photo 5: Spotify Algorithm generated streams (140k+ monthly streams)
Photo 6: Spotify Editorial Streams (10% editorial streams)
Photo 7: Spotify total playlists (2.2k+)
Huellas en la Arena (their top song)
Photo 8: Spotify streams since 2015
Photo 9: Spotify source of streams (84% algorithm)
Photo 10: Spotify playlists (349 total)
Takeaway
Very similar to our other artists, Mariannah y Diego's music wasn't on a ton of playlists (now 2.2k total, but only about 10-20 were originally from our playlist network, and their top songs are only on around 200-300 total playlists each), but the playlists their music WAS on were a perfect fit. And again, the algorithm eventually gathered enough data to begin recommending their music to their ideal listeners based off those playlist streams, which is why things started to take off.
Prediction
We wouldn't be surprised to see M&D easily cross 100k+ monthly listeners by late 2022 and early 2023, and a 3x to around 200,000 monthly listeners is definitely in the picture for 2023, assuming their marketing strategy continues.
1.10.23 Update: they officially crossed 120k+ monthly listeners (a 12x from their 10k starting point), and many of their songs are now hitting the algorithm at once. They are also now on over 8k+ total playlists and getting significant support from the editorial playlists. They are definitely on track to cross 200k+ monthly listeners for 2023!
Conclusion
There you have it, folks. FIVE different artists across THREE different genres; mainstream pop, acoustic Christian/worship covers, and Spanish Christian pop. And they all experienced the same algorithm benefits on their music. Their music got put on playlists that fit their niche genre really really well, they stayed on those playlists long enough for the Spotify algorithm to associate their music data with that of their ideal Similar Artists and ideal Listeners, and then the algorithm started boosting and recommending their music to bigger and better-fitting audiences via algorithmic playlists, specifically radio. This caused their music to be saved and added to a very large number of user playlists very quickly, which then caused further growth, and so on and so forth.
Again, THIS is why our marketing features like ArtistPool and Anthem Silver and Anthem Gold are SO effective for artists, because they generate consistent and quality streaming (aka data) over long amounts of time that inevitably triggers the algorithm. If you're interested in getting similar results with you or your artists' music, we'd love to work with you! You can view all our marketing feature HERE.