I've built this following and all I got was this lousy artist pick?! 📍

Greetings from my new (and slightly chaotic) corner of the world! It's been a hot minute since my last newsletter landed in your inbox, and for that, I owe you both an explanation and an apology. The whirlwind of settling into a fresh apartment, coupled with the allure of the latest web3 ventures in the hidden corners of X, and the usual hustle of day-to-day work, have kept me from diving into the research questions. I have a sneaking suspicion you haven't had a moment to miss me—am I right? 😉

Alright, let’s keep it real for a sec—Spotify (& any other DSP for that matter…) really needs to step up its game when it comes to helping artists connect with their fans. I mean, you put in the work, the endless hours, and the passion to build your tribe on their platform, and what do you get? A big ol' roadblock when it’s time to actually chat with your followers.

Picture this: you've been grinding on Spotify, building your listener base for ages, but when push comes to shove, there’s no straightforward way to reach out to them. This is why it's crucial to consider establishing your own customer data platform, enabling you to take the reins in connecting with your audience.

Currently, the closest thing to reaching out? Featuring an artist pick on your profile. But let’s be clear, it’s a shout into the void rather than a chat with your fans, because it’s not even aimed at just your followers. As for the artist pick, you’ve got a few choices on what to showcase:

• 📍 an album

• 📍 a song

• 📍 a playlist

• 📍 a link to merch

• 📍 a link to touring tickets

• 📍 a link to an upcoming release / countdown

Although many of these options have their own dedicated space on the artist page, they can be challenging for fans or listeners to locate.

Aware of this, my curiosity was piqued regarding how the top artists are leveraging this particular feature. Therefore, I examined the Spotify charts in The Netherlands, identifying all artists who had appeared in the Top 200 chart at any time, including those featured in any song on the chart (2024 so far). This process revealed 383 unique artists, encompassing both local and international talent, reflecting the chart's diverse nature.

For this cohort, I conducted a scrape of their artist pages to determine whether they 1) featured an artist pick at all and 2) if so, what type of content they chose for their artist pick on their profile.

About 23.2% of the artists didn't bother with an artist pick at all. The majority (29.3%) leaned towards highlighting a playlist, with 23% pinning an album and another 21.4% showcasing a product with 2 or fewer songs. Surprisingly, almost no one in the group pinned links to their merch. Only Taylor Swift had an 'upcoming album' as her featured pin.

I wanted to check if more established artists use the artist pick feature to showcase playlists or albums, giving their catalog a little boost. Even though there are fewer artists on the charts from before the 2000s, it was good to see that many of them actually do highlight their music this way. Many of them direct listeners to playlists, a logical choice given their larger collection of music to share.

It seems like artists with fewer monthly listeners are the ones who often skip pinning something to their profile. The more monthly listeners an artist has, the more likely they are to have their artist pick in place.

While it's key to aim for direct connections with our fans, and we're all hoping Spotify rolls out more features to help with that, making use of the artist pick is a simple step every artist should consider. It's a no-lose move to showcase your work on your profile!

Remember, it's smart to guide listeners towards places where they might stick around longer, like a playlist instead of just one song. A common strategy is for artists to highlight their latest track but cleverly position it at the top of an artist-curated playlist with their artist pick.

👉 Just so you know, all the insights I've shared so far come from publicly available data. While there's a ton of questions out there that public data can answer, I'm reaching out through this newsletter to see if anyone's interested in a deeper dive. Whether it's about your music, label, book, or podcast, I'm open to collaboration.

🤷‍♀️ What do you get out of this? Some solid data analysis assistance, my take on things, plus the exposure from my newsletter, which is well-received in the music and publishing (books/podcasting) sectors.

🤗 And for me? I get the thrill of working with firsthand data, showcasing some real-life examples, which I find super exciting!

If you're keen to team up, just hit reply to this email. If not, no worries—keep an eye out for my next update. I've been tinkering with a YouTube shorts scraper (Shorts are being slept on…!), so I'll have some findings to share soon.

Cheers! 👋