This Insider Spotify Data Is MIND-BLOWING
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this episode I take a look at the Top 500 Artists on Spotify and what it tells us about the current state of the music industry and A.I.
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I work in a store at the mall here in my country (Brazil), and these pop playlists with all these modern artists like the weekend or whatever are always playing, and it's mind boggling to me how sililar it all sounds, it's insane, it's all just like a big blur of same-yness.
its called pop music!
@@markdoolan3424 wrong, it's called bad modern pop. There used to be plenty of brilliant pop stuff out there. Real instruments, gorgeous melodies, big productions, orchestra arrangements, you name it. Nothing compared to the modern charts wasteland.
always the same few chords and very repetative melodies..often playing the same note over and over again
@@markdoolan3424 It is and should be called Garbage.
i agree completely. as a musician who plays mostly rock and roll, the stagnation of music in the market has become glaringly noticeable since 2000-2010. there’s just an overall lack of imagination and creativity as most people seem to copycat what’s already out there. i talk about this often with my bandmates and friends. you don’t hear amazing songs like Bohemian Rhapsody. we don’t know why this is happening or what to do about it.
The Beatles are doing ridiculously well considering they haven't put out a new album in over 50 years.
They put out the BEST songs…. Of all time.
Last Official unreleased Beatles song came out in 1995
@@solace6613 Real Love 1996.
Yeah I've noticed john has been fairly quiet of late.
aaaaand im going to hell now. welp.
So true, I thought they were released same year (Real Love and Free as a bird) but they came in different anthology
Yes, Elton John and the Queen are multigenerational, but they both also had hugely successful biopic movies recently, I feel like that could have influenced a lot the top charts
Idk about Queen, but I believe Elton John was up at the top before the biopic. He's always been near the top on spotify.
because they are gay
@@stuart6478 you took the words straight out of my mouth
Elton is in top 40 due to his 'collaborations' with Dua Lipa and britney spears
Elton John is only here because of the Cold Heart remix. And Queen isn't charting as well on Spotify now as they were in 2017, before the biopic was even announced. Bad examples.
The playlist effect is important here... there's a big difference between actively seeking out a particular artist's music vs simply putting one of the wildy popular pop playlists, which reinforce pop status quo. Pop also lends itself more to background listening so again the nature of the 'listens' at the top of the list is often going to be quite different.
Interesting point... a breakdown by
* personal vs. pre-built playlist;
* # of songs added to a personal playlist
* of songs 'favorited'
Exactly ... most people seem to not care what is 'on' as long as there is some noise in the background of their life...
Good point, Background music really sways the stats. Sure it's a listen, but it's not an active listen.
Surprised we don't see more lo-fi beats and sleep sounds on the charts lol.
@@Axel_Andersen This is key, to many people (most even?) music is just some pleasant background noise.
Or starting with a song you like, but then letting it auto-play the next songs. It tends to bias towards more popular songs in that genre and even move towards more pop genre… the algorithm assumes we like what most people like as it’s playing a numbers game trying to come up with recommendation. But it sort of become self reinforcing
It seems like the main reason for Elton John and Queen to be so high (relatively) is much simpler. They both had great biopics recently and I know some people who started to listen to them after watching the movie
They are also LGBTQ culture icons which resonates with Gen Z
@@luisdetomaso867 True. The most confused and socially engineered generation ever.
@@luisdetomaso867 which I think contributed to them getting movies. It’s all connected
@@williamroberts3719 I didn't see the Elton John biopic but it definitely struck me that the Queen biopic really was focusing on Freddie's personal life and the music felt almost incidental until the very end of the film. I really noticed it in comparison to the Elvis movie that just came out, which has music embedded into every moment start to finish.
Hendrix was supposed to have his biopic years ago.... but the alleged daughter said 'no' to use of Jimi's music. I mean, that's machinegunning yourself in the foot even if all she wants is money.
One issue facing rock/metal (and probably genres like jazz/classical/blues) is that their fans probably listen to a lot more variety than pop/hip hop/rap listeners, which dilutes the monthly listens for any single artist. I have thousands of albums/songs/artists in my library and I try not to listen to the same stuff all the time (though I am guilty of a few go-tos). The typical 18-34 year-old pop fan loops the same dozen tracks on repeat or just taps the Top 50 playlist most sessions. This positive feedback mechanism reinforces big numbers for a few - typical pareto principle.
This is a good point
I (a rock listener) can’t speak generally about this, but my most listened song each year has always been played a way lower amount of times than most of my pop-listening friends. My most played song will be like 20 times and theirs will be like 70 lol. Dunno if thats a genre thing or just depends on the individual but I think you might be right
100% this....rock and metal fans love variety and tend to not listen to the same thing over and over.
I'm mostly a black metal & doom metal guy, but I listen to a lit of drill, outlaw country, goth, neofolk, trip hop, Industrial, blues... so I completely agree.
@@VillageIdiotFs Spotify also hasn’t uploaded recordings done in a basement on an answering machine yet.
I think you forgot to mention that "Monthly Listeners" isn't always synonymous with "Monthly Streams". So album-oriented bands could have more streams even if they have fewer listeners. And I think that the rock and metal artists in particular are often the album-oriented ones.
This is true. Ed Sheeran is getting destroyed by Taylor Swift in streams. SpotifyCharts has an Artists charts (daily and weekly, and by region) that ranks artists by streams, although it doesn't specify how many.
Great point and you've touched on a bigger issue. That business drives the music industry. If you go back to the 1990s where CD was king albums drove the industry because albums on CD were extremely profitable. That was fine because rock bands for a long time had primarily been album focused rather than singles. Nirvana only had 1 top 10 single and Pearl Jam had 2 but both Nevermind and Ten sold over 10 million copies in North America. But in the internet age albums are a niche thing.
Unfortunately its all about money and rock music and albums are no longer profitable.
Spotify can't track you blasting your Metallica CD while going 80 on the highway.
Good point. I'll listen to my favorite bands hundreds of times a month, but that metric would only count me as one monthly listener.
@@mariokarter13 😄You are sooo right!
I’d love to see data on artists that are independent only on Spotify. Who wins without the incomparable backing of Corporate media
Bruh that list contains nobody.
How are Fugazi doing?
HANABIE. is really starting to pick up.
Major labels are allowed to game Spotify, indendants aren't, they don't even get the same rate per play.
kanye west
Some may find it boring but I always find all the nerdiest music datasets so interesting.
Well it’s interesting but also discouraging
Agreed. Also always enlightening.
Numbers, data... Fascinating!
That’s the only thing I really love about the streaming services, the data you can get about people’s listening habits. It’s the stuff we always wanted to know.
It may be that music streaming is in much more direct attention and monetary competition with video players and those short 30 second song snippets these days anyway. So tiktok music artists may be bigger but just not in direct music streams but rather their videos and how much money they make there
I think one big reason why older music isn't represented much, is that people listen to it on vinyl, CD or mp3.
nope
My thoughts exactly. I ripped all my CD’s and use TH-cam to find new artists. I don’t use any services.
I have 4500+ songs on my phone in mp3 or FLAC. Most are 80's and 90's music.
I have over 600GB of music that I collected over 20+ years. I've never used or paid for a streaming service. I'm 40. I use mp3's and wired headphones.
Arrrrrgh, mateys! Same here!
Rick, your recent videos on the state of music today have been super insightful! Thank you for putting in the work and sharing with us! As always, very thought provoking
Yap, agree! Thankl you!
I dispair ... Inventive original music has almost vanished. Not worth listening to any chart channels ... Nearly all repetitive and to a formula ... Junk
Always enjoy your videos Rick. I’m in my mid 50’s and have many friends of a similar or older age and I’m the only one with a Spotify account. We still listen to CDs or digital versions of music we have owned for many years and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were still many more like us. This could be why Spotify has much less people listening to rock music.
True! I even still listen to cassettes! (43)
I'm in my mid 40's and never had a Spotify account. I did have a few trials at competing services tough. But this never fully convinced me. In the end, I prefer my music streaming from my own server. Most of the stuff on there I acutually buy on CD. Occacionally I make myself a mixtape (yes actual cassette tape) when I have enough new material collected and listen to this on the go on a walkman. I'm mostly into heavy metal btw.
Rock and Metal is still album driven, and I am definitely part of that demographic. I have no interest in Spotify and never will, but I buy at least a couple albums every month, most of them new releases. There is a ton of new metal and rock music that is coming out and is fantastic.
I agree entirely, I listen to music all day long, I don't stream any of it,
I buy albums, mostly on cd, I listen to a lot of old and new releases, mostly rock, metal and classical music
Drop some band names please?
@@metaltim Honest question: what does Amazon Music offer that Spotify doesn't? I can pull up Gojira and Magma albums on Spotify. How is Amazon different? Again, not a pointed question, I'm really wondering what I'm missing.
ETA: maybe the difference is in the free version of each?
@@TheIboy505
EPICA, Kamelot, Queensryche
i have always made my own mix tapes and never really listened to albums. ever since my friend brought me 20gb of mp3 2o years ago i've been listening on shuffle (ah, winamp...)
An interesting observation. My wife and I are both in our late 60s. Our grandsons are 17 and 16. My wife was playing the "Sinatra at the Sands" album. The boys then let some of their friends listen to this "new to them" music. The kids loved it!
Same thing when a popular movie or TV show features an "old" song, i.e. "Running Up That Hill" on Stranger Things. Kids generally love 70s and 80s music when they are exposed to it.
Can't go wrong with Ol' Blue Eyes
Good music is good music. It was the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame that didn’t consider Kate Bush worthy until she became a hip retro artist.
My boys are in their 20s but in high school I discovered they made a playlist of 50s crooners (their grandparents' music) without any prompting from me. The youngest would fo homework while singing along! They have not listened to pop for at least a decade and we all love jazz
A while ago I heard a guy talking off the cuff in an interview about how it could be interesting to have something that resembled a TV but without image. It took him a second before he realized he had discovered radio. I see that kind of thing a lot. I've been waiting for someone to invent stoicism so the incessant whining about everything can stop.
I think the real fear with AI is not “AI artists” but labels forcing it on real people as a way to produce more “content”, cutting out human creativity from the music industry to optimise for product sales.
75% of any album wasn't written or composed by the artist on the cover already. They are already "forcing" it as you put it
We can not really rely on Spotify stats since you can hire "promo company's" to push the numbers up. I know a band I just did an album with that had 10 listeners and paid some one and now has almost 9000. When the promo money "runs out" they go back down to 10 or 20 listeners. I've seen it multiple times. Love your channels Rick Thank you.
Great point. Even big artists have done this with album & ticket sales. So sad you have to buy your own stuff to get others to do so. Plus, these streaming platforms pay so little and you as an artist have zero say in how much you get it’s just not with it. I just decided what matters to me as an artist is that someone enjoys my music. I’ll never make money or hit the big time. My music has a purpose (ambient instrumental guitar music) and as long as it fulfills that then I’m happy.
@@michaelsnydermusic that's right! some kinds of music are really made for a few people. The people that don't care about music listen to easy uplifting staff, something that makes them dance. But a good show with strange music can move many is just that they not gonna listen to it in the car or at home. not all music is made for money. I've seen artists push hard and they get 20 40 k real listener, but it doesn't blow up, so buying 9000 is really pointless
I think the lesson is that even though Spotify and the other services might seem like a public library, giving access to all kinds of stuff from all decades, its societal function is quite different, being really more like MTV in the 1990's, that is to say that using algorithms and curated playlists, it's really just reflecting, amplifying, and to some extent creating the musical zeitgeist.
@@razorx999 Let's not forget about the industry buying views to keep their plants on top.
so much of social media and streaming is built on the idea that the general user base has no idea how the algorithm works so it can easily be used to manipulate them.
It would be like the librarian greeting you at the door to say "How about one of these ten books, they're our most popular this week" and most people never take another step inside.
@@editingsecrets Great analogy, spot on!
@@editingsecrets this exactly, and they actually make it difficult for you to bypass the recommended stuff. like you have to up your subscription plan and pay more money to go deeper into the library.
I must be an anomaly. I've had Spotify since 2011, and it allows me to listen to music across the decades and across many different genres. However, my most popular playlist that I personally curated is my Oldies playlist, which covers music from the 50's through the early 70's and is over 41 hours long. That playlist is the best for putting me in a good mood. I'm 34 years old, but grew up listening to Oldies radio every day with my parents, so it always gives me a happy feeling.
What are some examples of "Oldies" for someone your age?
@@editingsecrets the temptations, buddy holly, Elvis. I’m 37
@@AtomicNumber420 better put The 4 Seasons there.
@@editingsecrets Probably songs from the 50s-70s
Another important thing to mention is that the three major labels own part of Spotify. It’s easy for them to push and place the artists that they decide are „popular“ and „in vogue“ at the moment.
I had a young rider in my car the other day. When he got out of my car I noticed he had a few album's in his hands and I was thinking at that moment 33 LPs will never die. Long live vinyl!
Vinyl is frequently used for collector's style records, e.g. in in the vaporwave scene, made and packaged with visual artistry as well.
I think the reason The Beatles are so low is most people over 35 who are fans own everything already. I bought all their cds in the 90s, again with the mono and stereo mixes in 09 and I'll buy them on vinyl soon enough. It's that way with Zep, Floyd, the Stones, Dylan etc
Yup. Bought my Beatles stuff in the 60s and 70s, and again when it was remastered. I have 4 versions of a few albums!
I own well over half of what I listen to. No one can track it.
Yep. I nicked my dad's collection for half the Beatles & Floyd albums and bought the other half. 😅
This is a good point. I have a few thousand albums but subscribe to Amazon Music. Occasionally I'll play something I own when I don't feel like scrolling through the 128GB flash drive connected to my car's media interface.
Yes the subscription has changed the way data is compiled making it much less personal. Impersonal proceduralism via electronic consumerism masking the hidden hand of the corporation is a significant bias. Not only in the music industry is this occurring and the implications are underrated.
Agreed. Why would I pay the thieves at Spotify when (1) I own physical media (i.e., vinyl or CD) for roughly 80% of the music I listen to, or (2) for music I own only in a “purely digital” format, I buy it either directly from the artist (e.g., Khruangbin) when possible.
In regards to iTunes, a play count is up to less than 10 seconds of the song ending. Makes sense it would take awhile compared to the 30 seconds of Spotify.
I believe a few years ago Spotify even got in some troubles because until then, they had never opened their criterias about "what consists in a play" according to their annual reports, even to inverstors, and then it was out in the open. I personally don't agree that 30 seconds should count as a play, but.. it always gets down do business and money, and I guess form them it makes more money this way.
30 secs is 'seeing if you like a tune'. If you don't, you select another. This is a shoddy way of counting 'listens'. Spotify shoddy? Yep!
I cant understand the equating a certain amount of streams to a sale when you aren’t buying anything
@@shannonpincombe8485 I think the commenter meant the time before the end of the song. So like listening to a 3 minute song for 2 minutes 30 seconds vs 2 minutes 50 seconds. In my opinion anything over half the song should count as a listen. You clearly intended to listen to it, sometimes you have to do stuff in the middle of things.
@@bread7038 No I actually meant 30 seconds. Which to be fair, is better for the artists as they get their royalties quicker.
Apple Music way is too much the other way. I'm a big play count nerd, so I have to wait until the song reaches the end before I can choose a new one. Thats a huge pain when the its like a 10 minutes song and theres just noise for a minute or so at the end.
I fully agree. Things like live music, artisanal baking, pottery, sculptures, great cooking, quality furniture, cheeses, charcuterie and similar things will always have a renaissance and will always keep a specific value for humans. We think that we are so evolved. In the end we are paying more for these things, line up in droves and travel from afar to get a piece of true craftsmanship. Love what you do Rick
In addition to the demographic breakdown it would be interesting to see how often each group uses it. I (older demographic) listen to Spotify but not that often, partly because I have other formats that I prefer. I would guess the younger demographics are much more regular listeners and many use Spotify exclusively as their listening format.
I love that my band and practically millions of others can easily get their music out in front of so many listeners. I also hate that my band is competing for what is probably a share of less than 1%. Our first album we did 'some' marketing and paying to get on some play lists and get some online reviews and we only had 88K listens in the first year. We didn't do any marketing for our second album and it was significantly lower. We are recording our third album now and it seems like it's more about us as musicians leaving a legacy for our friends and family. We'd need a miracle and/or a song on a TV show or in a movie to make any kind of money we could actually touch.
Exactly.
You could just sell your soul. I’m going to bounce over and see if you have some music on your channel.
Niacin Flush?
@@Singingmygutsoutmusic That’s my old band. Look up West of House. We have four videos here and a bunch of music streaming. Thanks!!
Each day around 100k songs are uploaded to Spotify. Many of those songs will never be played, not even once! It's a sobering thought
It’s just what it is. Rock is falling the way Jazz once did. It will always be there, but not in the spotlight
For the better IMO. When you don't have pressure to be pop you can be much more creative. We've seen the same thing in all genres that have taken a back seat.
Who cares about being on some common top 100 and being "superstars", Even artists way down these spotify lists gather big crowds live and make an comfortable living on their music. Pop have always be huge commercially.
Is it so hard for a rock band to make a hit record though? I don’t think it’s impossible. Pop punk has been experiencing a resurgence, and songs like Billie Eillish’s “Happier than Ever” & SZA’s “F2F” embraced rock instrumentals and Gen-Z loved it.
The thing is also how many of these famous rock bands or artists have stayed true to their sound? Much have become poppier.
@@westmus True. Not saying that it matters to me. I just hope there are people who are inspired enough to continue making it regardless
That was a great breakdown of the streaming numbers, and a cool display of what you could infer from it. Great job!
First of all HUGE RESPECT for a data analysis video coming from you Rick, I am an analyst by trade and this was killer. More please.
Second of all, I have not looked at the API data myself, but an interesting arm of research within the Spotify sphere might be played songs that come from specifically selected songs/albums vs playlists vs songs that come from a Spotify algorithm. Then from those individual tiers you could do the same analysis that you just performed and see if the Spotify algorithm is actually controlling the top artists rather than the customer base (standard notion of charting). I think we all might be shocked at what those results looked like.
Rick diving into the API! That was unexpected and super cool all at the same time (developer here). I’m also a huge data guy, so I love this video even more. Thank you, you always motivate me to be better.
It would be interesting to see a list of top music festival headliners. That would show where people are really willing to spend their cash
... and time- sitting in traffic at the end of a festival- their favorite artists streaming while they inch along with smiles on their faces
Hard for anyone to beat Taylor Swift, I think
Rick - fantastic content. By now I should be used to your top quality videos, but you never seize to surprise me. I am in your demographic too and my 13 year old son enjoys all the bands and singers I enjoy plus a bunch of new stuff as well. He is way more eclectic than I am.
Another thing I noticed when I used Spotify is that it never really recommended me music that was based off anything I actually listened to. 80% of what I listened to was some form of classic rock or metal. Spotify kept trying to feed me pop songs. What you found does not surprise me
Like how I keep trying to feed my baby spinach. She has enough taste to spit it out.
That's odd... I listen to a lot of classic rock too and it always recommends and plays music in that genre, both from artists I regularly listen to and from similar artists I haven't listened to yet. Do you share your account with someone who listens to pop or did you used to listen to pop? Sounds like your algorithm is messed up.
@@OLDGREGG315 I play a minimal amount of pop. Like I said I play about 80% rock 20 misc which includes some pop. Id say it's my algorithm but I know it does this to other people too. More of a Spotify algorithm problem.
Gorillaz and Draft Punk come to mind when you mentioned AI musicians having no fan interactions and so being unable to gain traction with an audience. They both still have a massive following, despite not being recognisable people, and Gorillaz even rarely perform live.
Gorillaz have 10 million TH-cam subscribers and 14 songs with over 50 million views, 28 million monthly Spotify listeners, and a song with over a billion streams.
Draft Punk have nearly 6 million subscribers on TH-cam and 8 songs with over 50 million views, 21 million monthly Spotify listeners, and a song approaching a billion streams.
I do think lack of fan interaction would hamper most artists, but it is still possible to make it big with no face, no interviews and no autographs.
Well Daft Punk was known for being the couple of guys with big high tech helmets, and even if not everyone knew or cared, there was always a connection with Damon Albarn and Gorillaz, and he was an already established artist with Blur. Two points that I think made those bands famous are 1) they had good music -unlike most of the 'artists' now days-, and 2) they showed up as something different than themselves, with all the cartoons, masks, etc. (similar phenomenon as with Slipknot; a lot of people that don't listen to heavier music know Slipknot only because of the masks), which was not common back then. But overall, I think it comes to the good and interesting/different music. If someone comes up with some AI thing that makes good music, it will surely explode (being amongst the first ones would help as well), but if the music is all the same as the trends, it may just be like some of those 1-hit singers that you never hear from again.
But they have both been around (or were around in case of Daft Punk) for like two decades. And they both had gigantic marketing machines too, not to mention genius songwriters. All that without even taking into account that Damon Albarn was already huge because of Blur and he had a ton of experience and influence in the industry. There's no comparison here.
Also those awesome helmets would damn well count as faces 😜
@@RatBotEins Yeah I agree, the lack of a face became the defining feature of those artists and created a kind of enigma around them. I does make the point about not needing fan interactions (or live performances in the case of Gorillaz) to gain a wide following, though.
I also think that there is a big difference between faceless bands and an AI artist. Not showing your face becomes intriguing in a way, and you have to wonder who the "person X" is behind the song. They hide their face because it is a conscious style choice. If the song is written by a computer, everyone knows it is a computer, and everyone knows that they have no face to show. There is no mystery or intrigue.
@@kevincarlos973 I know what you mean, but I was just talking about how lack of fan interaction (live performances, interviews, etc.) does not necessarily have to hamper a band.
You gotta understand children of rich and/or influential people can buy themselves up on the rankings while having the best personnel making the music and teaching them to perform it. While e.g. Daft Punk Bangalter's father was a producer and probably pulled some strands Thomas still had to do something by himself, but having this relationship was certainly beneficial. Daft Punk also managed to create a some sort of mystery around the band which is one way to interact with fans. But, the AI band can be "fathered" by the industry, so it will be automatically connected to everything. I don't believe the first incarnations of AI music will appear on the lists just like that, although it could be just bought up on charts. Instead, there could be even an AI fake persona on Instagram boys can drool after, and you will see the whole development story of the character from virgin to slut and so on. Feedback of this persona and analysis of likes on Internet can be use to shape the story.
Had a look at the charts out of morbid curiousity the other day, in particular from my country of New Zealand. Among the usual pop songs, there is, at number 22.... Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, and at number 48, Creedance Clearwater Revival's Have You Ever Seen the Rain. Can't deny I was little proud that we at least have some mention of the classics in there.
Lab has been doing well the last few years. They ain't bad
That's why they're considered classics!
It is curious which songs the under 35 latch on to. Narrow subset.
@@Tom_McMurtry Uh. I'm happy for their success, but every time I hear them I could swear I've heard the exact same song before. Just not my jam, I guess.
@@whyyeseyec Global lists are absent of classics, sadly.
Wow! Rick! Thank you for the comparison and understanding the channels with their mayor players. What always will amuse me, is in which genre the artists are placed.
I like my local rock & country stations.
I drive a 29 passenger bus. We listen to the radio on the bus all the time. half of the bus likes to listen 80's & 90's Rock country in the morning.
On the way home in the afternoon, the other half gets to listen to rock. There are two great rock stations to choose from .They are all great stations!👍🇺🇸
It's interesting to listen to you talk about this because I don't listen to spotify. I'm old enough to have most of the music I want on LP, CD or cassette and then replicated in a hard drive and I'm guessing that most of the bands I listen to don't feature highly on digital plays/streaming charts because their fans are much like me.
Same, I started using Spotify a few years back, and the main reason why I stopped using it was because they didn't have a lot of songs I enjoy and listen regularly, and in the end I was always listening to the same old records I already had.
That sounds like a hassle huh, but i guess anyone can spend their free time doing whatever they want
Those were my thoughts as well. There are so many fantastic older artists who just don’t have a big Spotify base because as you said, the majority of their listeners (who certainly could be in the millions!) have all the music they want in a hard copy of some kind. I personally only got into Spotify over the last couple years so I still have tons of CDs that I regularly listen to.
@@squirrelhallowino29 Why would you assume that to be "a hassle"? I have about 1 TB worth of CDs, DTS, Hires-downloads and the odd collector's item sourced from vinyl that streams like a charm and everything that was sampled or ripped was done lossless and apart from the few seconds of manually swapping discs and restarting it was done while doing something else 🙂
Nothing can compare to having physical albums than just streaming them but Spotify and other streaming platforms are good for those who wants to explore music (old and new music) before deciding to buy the physical albums.
Do not forget that recently released pop songs are a lot shorter than older tracks, consequently they get streamed a lot more! = big advantage for "newer" artists
So thrilled you popped up in my feed. Sir you make the day better for some reason, thankyou… probably because the first video, I watched was the stairway to Heaven one but this one has given me a lot to ponder over the dishes this morning…❤
I have nothing but respect for Shakira having a spot among the Top10, making her the only 90s Pop Star in that list, she started her career in 1991 around the same time Alanis Morrisette, her third album "Pies Descalzos" (1995) was a massive Alt Pop hit often compared to Alanis Morissette third album "Jagged Little Pill" launched that same year. Shakira was introduced to english speaking audiences in the early 00s at the time she was already a legend in Latinamerica.
Even more impressive is David Guetta who's career started in 1984, what an amazing thing it is to remain relevant to this very day in the 2020s, those artist have endured dramatic changes in the music industry, the rise and decadence of MTV, the change from physical format to MP3 and streaming.
Man...Shakira is in the charts because of the controversy with her ex husband Pique. Her recent songs were really boring and simple and are in the charts only because they're criticizing her ex husband's new girlfriend.. it's actually sad
Jee 1984? Thats a long time ago
@@intjtrader Shakira has been been a giant in streaming era before that song came out but I agree with you, that song is really boring and far from her best, not because the lyrics anyway. Her earlier stuff is better, even her Spanish album that came before her first English album.
Even more impressive is the likes of Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin, The Doors having more than at least 10mil+ monthly listeners. 3 of those careers ended 50+ years ago while Zeppelin ended in 1980.
Great to hear your perspective as always Rick. It's easy to look at numbers and make assumptions but your real-world experience drives it home! Glad you're here giving us the good stuff as often as you do.
I think part of it is also the fact that they're tracking "monthly listeners." I have used spotify for years and I've noticed that a lot of us users listen to a wide range of genres and artists, and we don't listen to the same things month to month. I've noticed spotify users tend to explore more than apple music users, but that's just what I've seen through personal experience.
Yeah I’ve thought about that too. I’ll go for months sometimes without listening to all time favs like Mastodon or Pantera so according to a “monthly listeners” stat I don’t even like those bands anymore 😬
I wonder if Apple Music's recommendation algorithm is more likely to recommend the same artists that a listener is familiar with (or similar acts), while maybe Spotify's has more of a propensity to suggest new/unfamiliar artists and songs...
@@InventorZahran That would be a great thing to look into. Watching my girlfriend switch from Apple Music to Spotify, it looks like that could actually be the case. Spotify seems to recommend her a lot more variety, so far.
Fascinating video. Rick always delivers where quality is concerned. If rock is your passion you're probably better off enjoying it without fretting about its popularity, and if you're a rock musician you should focus on putting out great music and innovating. If you can support yourself while playing music you're winning. As a bonus, you don't have to be a brand like The Weeknd, just a musician.
That's amazing format of video about music stats! I'd love to watch more! Thank you Mr. Beato
Queen and Elton John are the tops because they had a movie made about them in recent years. Rocket Man was a fantastic movie as well - not such a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody, but it won Oscars.
Very Good Point
That may be true, but you must admit that Both Rocket Man and Bohemian were / are remarkably original songs that are quite good listening. Not to mentino all of the other songs from these artists which are outstanding as well..... perhaps classic ?
No, they had movies made because they re popular. In Britain the top selling album of all time is Queens Greatest Hits.
@@gavinreid2741 Maybe that they were the top selling album of all time suggests that they were popular and that it was good music, original, etc. ? Some correlation perhaps ?
why not the Beatles then?
Like Rick I'm in the 55+ demo. I don't use ANY music streaming service as I "own" my music. Here's MY top 10 plays (by Band/Artist -) in the last 28 days: 1, The Beatles 2, Led Zepplin 3, The Doors 4, Boston 5, Rolling Stones 6, ELO 7, The Moody Blues 8, Rod Stewart 9, ELP 10, Kiss!. "Spotify", "Apple Music", ETC data is WAY out of my range. But I'd make an OK "Classic Rock" DJ on a Pittsburgh radio station. LOL.
That's because linkin l
Park are pop songs masquerading as metal. It's like backstreet boys with heavy guitar
Take away KISS and you have a killer sound set. lolol. I know, I know, they were awesome.
Ha, I'm a "boomer", I know, I'm only 15 years, but the music is what drives me.
@@oceancrosby4578 Exactly. It has a soul of its own and it sings to us all.
Dear Rick I have a huge passion about Rock music.... when I was 13th I learned that "you are not the one that choose what kind of music you like....its in the other direction....the music choose you".... I had the great placer to enjoy the gold heavy metal era....1980-1990... some many epic bands
Damn, what a great idea for an episode. Good job Rick. The Beetles will still be on this list long after most of these groups drop off.
I've been involved with the promotion of my band and while we are not anywhere close to reaching numbers like you are talking about, I see the trends and how money influences the amount of plays, the playlists, streams, and possible downloads. Thank you for sharing this valuable insight to Spotify.
The median length of each song per genre is also very relevant here. Pop/Rap seems to be optimized for Spotify with sub 3min songs while I could imagine that Rock songs sticked more to the traditional 5min mark. Thats almost half the amount of listens if you'd assume that people listen to songs all the way through
In my experience a lot of rock is about 3 minutes and there's a lot of rap at 4+ minutes
Time's ripe for a Ramones Revival!
thats why NOFX should be higher up then?
Great point really.
The same thing struck me as I was watching the video. I'm sure that'd be a significant factor. People are only listening for a finite amount of time, so the length of the songs they're listening to would dramatically affect how many songs they'd hear.
Fascinating to know what other people listen too. I often wonder how my tastes compare to larger population. No nonsense or opinions. Just real metrics. Excellent Rick
It was great to see you do this breakdown. Would love to see more data driven ideas that might demistify the music industry.
A major factor you overlooked is the selection bias of Spotify itself. Only Spotify users listen to Spotify-hosted music. There are far more options available today when compared to the physical requirement of the past embodied in going out and buying a single or album. The other major issue I see is the qualification that a "listen" constitutes 30 seconds. If Spotify can track that then they can track complete listens. I'd much rather see the data on, say, 90% or greater song completion.
Very true. I subscribe (pay for) to Pandora and listen to multiple channels every single day.
The 30 second listen also makes me suspicious that there aren't automated listening computers that skips popular songs after 30 seconds just to build the listen count.
That stat that nobody from the last 3 years is on the list is the most interesting stat.
“Lies, damned lies and statistics”! Rick - can you do a similar analysis across the other major platforms? I think there are 2 key factors that need to be considered with an analysis like this. First, the quality of the platform and the kind of listeners it’s attracting and second, whether the platform is “pushing” certain artists, similar to how record labels would use radio.
Good book reference, but Spotify, Apple Music, and TH-cam are all basically global streaming superpowers. There are some different tastes between them, but the change is almost unnoticeable. The main change is that Asia, including India, uses TH-cam a lot more than the other platforms.
Fascinating research. I'm more of an old school music lover so I know for fact that there are very few people in the top 100 of the Spotify list that I listen to. Most of my listens are older 90's, 80's, 70's, and 60's genre music (Jazz, R&B, Blues, Rock, etc) plus soundtracks. I'm a sucker for live instrumentation and to that end, very few of today's pop artists actually play their own music at the degree the older artists did (yeah, I know -- fight me).
I feel like there's a real stagnation since 2010, not just for music but other parts of culture and tech too (what do you have today you didn't have in 2011?). I think this decade will break it, but the 2010s were really about the established players (like the musicians in this list, or the big tech companies) dominating and concentrating mainstream. I am very hopeful this will crack soon
I thought it was about who can scam people out of their money the fastest. Oh wait, that's this decade.
We have soooo much that we didn't have in 2011. What are you talking about? This has more to do with your interest in paying attention to what's happening than nothing happening in general.
Popular music has been stagnating for 20+ years though.
I think rock started becoming stagnant well before 2010.
As an old guy whose kids are now teenagers, I'd have to say that the period 2010-2016 was a veritable golden age for pop music. I heard what my kids were listening to, and I was playing in a parents band at their school that covered the songs. Uptown Funk - great song with a fun bassline to play. Desposito - great song. Riptide, Feel it Still, High Hopes, Take Me To Church - great songs. Drake had quite a few classic tracks. It's just a fact that there were lots and lots of eminently hummable tunes on the radio in that period.
But for the last six or seven years, it's been trash. The Weeknd bringing back the 80s has been the only stuff (barely) worth listening to.
@@aquamarine99911 80s and 90s were the best. 2000s and onward pop artists are just overly compressed autotune drones.
I'm so glad we have the ability to acquire the music we WANT to listen to and are not limited to what's in the top "insert number". Imagine all the amazingly talented artists we wouldn't have access to if that was the case. Scary to think about.
this is what i always remind myself. i may not enjoy what's currently being played on the radio, but i don't have to listen to it. i can listen to any music i want in a variety of different formats, and as long as that is still possible, no genre will ever totally die out.
How do we find the music that we WANT to listen to? Where did we access all the amazingly talented artists that aren't represented in the Spotify statistics for 500 most streamed artists?
@@sonicproof5625 Uh, right here on TH-cam.
@@jeremyc9593 Really? I think the algorithm that is used to make suggests for videos to watch was much better a few years back. I find that it either brings up too many videos from my viewing history or selections that are totally irrelevant. I just tested the difference between using TH-cam whilst logged in to my account and using TH-cam in a new incognito window. Using the same search inquiry "beato" brings up the exact same result for the first 10 suggestions before offering different but similar selections. I clicked on the first video with both instances of TH-cam🎵🎶 which was the same clip "This Insider Spotify Data Is MIND-BLOWING. Now the list of suggested videos is vastly different; The incognito TH-cam is mainly offering more Beato clips with a few other music theory and guitar equipment reviews plus clips of bands that are featured in recent Beato videos like Linkin Park and Nuno Bettencourt - where as the TH-cam logged into my acct is suggesting more Beato along with music theory, guitar lessons and interviews with musicians plus a dozen or more videos of live performances as well as a heap of music clips that I've recently viewed.
@@sonicproof5625 Oh, I definitely agree. The algorithm was most definitely better a few years back. Now I seem to have to force it down the right path by clicking on a song or music video I already know, and then searching the "recommended" videos on the right side to find and click on another video until it finally starts to show me new but similar music. It's not nearly as good or convenient as it used to be, but it still works for me.
This is a great video. Thank you for breaking it down.
This is mind boggling. Thanks for doing the research and sharing it for us to ponder. For those of us in the music industry, this definitely gives us food for thought.
there's something else about metal bands and pop artists: Shakira, Jbalvin, Bad Bunny and many others release almost a song every week, because their music is extremely easy to produce, but others artists (with a most robust music offering) need more time to produce a song. You can say those latin pop artist are the fast food chains of the music.
AI will be even faster at releasing music.
Well, it helps when you have 7-10 producers for one track, with greed as the driving factor. As you can tell, talent has nothing to do with the charts. You're spot on with the Latin Pop genre. Just the same "doo key-doo key" moombaton drum loop. Not only for every song but, every artist!?
@@undagroundsoundproductions4214 yup, and you don't need to worry about chord progressions and lyrics, because all you need in those latin songs is that the words end all in the same letter:
"tu me llevas a la cimA
tu eres la que me excitA
tu la rompes en la pistA"
and that's it!
@@bboyhanvzla Hahhaha, I never realized that 'til now. Probably 'cause I couldn't get past the monotobeat, and I'm a fan of Moombahton. From a DJ to a bboy, we still know what's up. All these "artists" trying to bite Hip Hop's style but know nothing of the 4 pillars. It's funny how it all comes back to Hip Hop. Even country tryna get in the game now.
excellent data analysis - thank you - perspective is required and you provided it. Facts matter.
Actually, I'm amazed to see the Beatles there. We are living in a new world and seeing them in the list is really impressive and a testament to their greatness. For example, where in the list are the Beatles' contemporaries (Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, etc.)?
Paul is a great ambassador for their legacy. He’s constantly doing interviews and if you haven’t checked it out McCartney just did a fabulous breakdown of the Beatles recording techniques with Rick Rubin.
The monthly listeners fluctuate a lot. There are times when Ed has been number 1 for a while and times when Swift has been number 1 etc. depends on latest release, touring, PR etc.
Taylor Swift has never been #1
I also believe if you look at those demographic age groups the older age groups are consuming their music somewhere else or by a more traditional fashion. And to get a full picture the percentage of users between the age of 35 and 44 is quite low considering their age. I feel like looking at Spotify in a vacuum it's probably not a direct image of the current music industry output. Even though it's broad appeal and capture of the streaming market
Great vid, as usual. Very interesting and telling, as for 'The Weekend' - I've never heard of them before, maybe I've been living under a rock!
Fascinating topic! My insight on the reason for rock to have less listeners on Spotify is due to the fact that avid Classic Rock fans such as myself prefer vinyl records over compressed MP3 audio files. In my opinion, the modern pop music that is spewing out of the music factories nowadays are considered more as a commodity and relevant for the short run. The expression: "All sizzle and no steak" come to mind. I am baffled at the number of so called songwriters (up to 8 I am told), needed to compose a song. I am not sure why that many songwriters are needed unless they are market analysts dedicated to ensure the success and more importantly the profit for the executives who are concerned about the bottom line over the quality of music. I am grateful there are other venues to explore new aspiring artists than what the music industry is offering.
Great video. I am 50. I grew up on classic rock and then 80s rock and then grunge. I was in local rock bands, etc.. I can listen to rock hits once in a while (usually in the car), but most of the time I listen to other genres, pop or lofi… especially when streaming.
I don't listen to _any_ new music, other than what I occasionally see on SNL. I'm even sick of all the old classic rock stuff as it's been overplayed. I don't need to hear Hotel California or Stairway to Heaven EVER again. I've started listening to Jazz from the 50s and 60s, all the greats. I'm hearing most of it for the first time, so it's brand new to me and it's a breath of fresh air.
Whatever is on SNL is going to mainstream garbage 😂
Love you Rick! You are awesome. I got my Dad subscribed he loves your videos too!
TikTok doesnt run the music business, Spotify playlists do. If you take an artist like The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, or Miley Cyrus - they have massively inflated numbers. They're featured everywhere. Whether you're working out, cleaning the house, studying, or partying - the Spotify playlist will feature them all and more. There's this positive feedback loop that's happening where every new release of a pop artist is featured on every playlist and played on every mainstream radio station. Doesn't matter if it's a good song or not, you're bombarded with it to the point where you will nod along to it no matter what. And they don't stop playing them. I hear the same songs on the radio driving to work, and driving home from work. It's beyond stupid.
It just feels like there's this apathy. Nobody cares if the new song is good or not. It's X's new track/album so it's automatically great no matter what! And It's going to be played and featured ad nauseam, until you get a Pavlovian beat-tapping response whether you like the song or not. It's sad
I agree with your analysis. I would add that it's all about marketing -> money. If you somehow 'make' it as an artist, you've become part of your positive feedback loop.
It's why I have stopped listening to radio, and I would encourage everyone to compile their playlists on whatever device/platform/software you'd like to use (preferably one where they don't bombard you with ads or limit your capabilities unless you pay) and go down the rabbit hole somewhat. There you'll find the less recognized artists and hopefully convince them not to go for the big time (big cash). Sadly, there is a lot of competition and music doesn't pay well unless you have lots of listeners.
You are so right. Avoid those stations and tune into something that doesn't do that, and you'll be happier. Maybe a classic rock station?
The charts are manipulated. I know we don't hear about this a lot but there is a lot of evidence that the mob got involved in the record business a long time ago. It's well hidden and well organized crime.
Look into the artists who have spoken out against the industry. ThEy all say similar things and some even even openly say it was
Very well said, I guess most of the people on this forum agree. It is indeed a worrying development, where the songs are no longer musical creations to be enjoyed. Just mechanical speculative and ice-cold push-button compositions, which drive a person with a reasonably developed musical mind to insanity. Just business and business again. The songs are often meaningless products that should bring in as much cash as possible - cynicism in cubic!
I'm a part-time volunteer DJ on a non-commercial college radio station; check out one in yr area & support it....
The problem is much more fundamental. We used to experience culture through real world experiences... going places, meeting people, forming bands, browsing record stores, listening to radio curated by passionate DJ's, the clubs and concerts. Now culture is just fed through apps and social media on a phone. It's pretty lame
Right!? I hate when I call someone to catch up and their like "you could've just texted me". Sorry for wanting to hear a friend's voice? OK, now I know I don't need to catch up with you. You show you have no drive to catch up, as well and have nothing of real substance I'd like to hear. Go back to your abnormal neck-bending habit of staring at a piece of metal and glass and hate comment on FB 7 more times.
And you are watching Rick’s digital video and commenting on it through your high tech cell phone via TH-cam. 🫤
Its sad😮
You still can.
@@JS45678 Rick's opinions are based on decades of real world experiences playing real instruments, with other people in person, for audiences in person, and working with bands in person in the studio. It's not the opinion of someone who's only ever reacted to things that popped up on their phone, about something else that popped up on their phone.
Rick. Just wanted to thank you especially for the Daniel Lanois interview. That was top shelf.
As always your analyses @Rick Beato is soo interesting; question if I can: All the billions of people in India'n'China & surrounding countries, does all those listens of often non-english non-western music still not break into the world figures on spotify, or do these people listen to streaming services we don't know of or use- kinda like the way Chinese use a differnt version of Tik-tok than "the West" xx
As someone with a background in Computer Science, I appreciate the insights you provide by going through the data.
As someone doing a PhD in Information Systems I'd like to express my aversion against "As someone" comments. Everyone with a middle IQ should be able to logically get trough descriptive statistics, even data frames.
There is music as art. There is music as a business. They are both completely different things.
Amen.
On spot! I think Rick should focus on the art form or craft.
There will be seperate websites specially for seperate fanbases. Possibly get quite harder to upload music out of some specific conditions out of real world, but will worth it
Some music falls under both. Like Dark Side of the Moon. Artistically and financially successfully.
I had a thought as I watched this. I think these stats show that artists in genres with shorter song lengths are at an advantage. It makes sense, as people will only be listening for a finite amount of time. If they're listening to a playlist of a genre where the average song length is 3 minutes or less, they'll hear significantly more songs than they would for a genre where the average is 4-5 minutes. This could help explain why hard rock, metal, and other genres that skew toward longer songs are less represented in the charts.
Thank you for showing this! 👍🏼
Great information Rick, love the quality of your work!
Very interesting. It’s sad that the era of bands seems to be over. Seems the main reason for no new bands is that most people don’t listen to rock so the labels won’t spend the money developing and promoting new bands when it’s easier to pay one artist most of the little pool of development money and peanuts to the backing musicians.
You aren't looking hard enough. Bands are still very much alive and very popular within their own genres, local scenes, culture etc... they're not at superstar level as the landscape of music has changed drastically since the early 2000s but there are still many bands making a living off of their music as well as new bands forming in local scenes constantly
Rock and metal have been pushed underground due to labels buying a lot of the "mainstream" radio stations. Most rock and metal is played on independent online radio stations now and all sub-genres are very much alive and well! You just need to know where to look. I no longer listen to broadcast radio because of this. Rock n Roll will never die!
Super interesting... It might be worth looking at the musical preferences of different age groups, and how new music gets incorporated. I've been using Spotify's new AI DJ who is a bit spooky.
Great video Rick! Makes me wonder where Jazz Fusion / Jazz Rock as a genre is in the statistics... Some really great musicians there but probably below 1% on the genre chart and in the regions of 55+ of age if you dig down on the data.
I got in the top 1% of Beatles listeners in my Spotify Wrapped last year, which had me feeling proud until I remembered much of the "competition" probably just aren't streaming. Context, context, context. So this video was fascinating!
Awesome analysis Rick. We are the same age and I haven’t heard of many of these artists. Just getting into Spotify after resisting it for years.
lighting and colors are much better on this video, great job!
Hey Rick, can you make a video on new bands coming into the music industry? What are some struggles new musicians have now verses in the past? And, Is it even still possible to play music and tour like how it used to be? I feel like there isnt any hope for us :(
This is absolutely fascinating information. I would love to see a similar breakdown of TH-cam music and Apple music. I also think that it would be fascinating if you were to compare a top ten Spotify list with the other major streaming services. You do a great job on all of your videos, your work is very much appreciated.
I think the point of the video was that there are many many red flags that this is corrupt information... If I'm not mistaken the subtext of the video is that these numbers are derived from spoofing or bots are some other thing like that... The simple fact that that 20% differential exists between number one and number two is abright bright bright red flag
This is something I have been noticing, seeing top artists / charting artists being the same as a decade ago. Feel Spotify can be quite a difficult place to discover new music. But it’s a great place if you already know what you want to listen to exactly!
It is hard to get good recommendations. The algorithm has a very narrow focus.
This is a baffling opinion that somehow a lot of people share. Its incredibly easy to find new artists and songs.
Search the genre playlists. For every genre there will be one for new releases.
Hey Rick, congratulations for your work and channel. It is an amazing contribution to music scene. Would like to recommend some artists from the Japan, such Yorushika. I will love to know your comments about. regards
Hey Rick, I’ve always wondered what your thoughts are on the strokes, especially because they seem to have a pretty significant impact on rock from the 2000s onwards
You should ask Iggy Pop what he thinks about the Strokes.
Part of my job is data analytics. My main past time is music-related. This is gold!
If Spotify owns the AI artist, then I can assure you it will be at the top of the heap.
I thought the exact same thing. Algorithms are easily slanted or biased to favour any artist/label. Spotify constantly serves me 'suggestions' for artists I don't have the slightest interest in listening to.
One thing that should be considered when looking at this data is the differences in consumption between various listeners.
For example, my wife has playlists with some of her favorite pop music. She gardens several hours a day and plays these playlists again and again. It is not focused listening, if you will. Whereas I play a wider variety of music, for several less hours per day, but my listening is quite focused.
In other words, some of these numbers are inflated by non-attentive consumers, simply playing music blindly.
Anyways, just thought I’d share that perspective.
thank you been subscribed .... student for life... great content.... great content
Arctic Monkeys are 53rd with over 44m monthly listeners. They're an amazing rock band. I'm still waiting for Rick to acknowledge them. Great style video, though.
Yes! Altough the they gained a lot through viral songs.
Rick is using his clout to meet with his heroes. Can't say I blame him, though.
This should be interesting and quite disheartening all at once.
This is very interesting info. Thank you Rick.
Rock is simply a genre that is taking the back seat. There are still plenty of rockers out there and great rock artists, but pop and electronic music is simply more popular right now
you missed the point. people are the center of attraction. however if a programmer can create a compelling character, it could takeover. who knows
I really don't understand the fanaticism for Ed Sherran ? He bores me to tears as does 99.9% of these artists Rick mentioned. Like cotton candy, empty flavors of the times.
Same. I just don't get it either. It's about as soul stirring as pasteurized milk.
Lowest common denominator. Just absolute wallpaper music for the boringest of people.
@Jason Brayshaw And it's not an age gap thing. It's a pied piper mentality.. Everybody and their friends all like what everyone else does . It's almost like it's all tied into the social media "must have likes to be cool and accepted" crowd.
He’s millennial Billy Joel
@@untexan Ed Sheeran wishes he could write "Piano Man"
This was interesting, Rick. Since you and I come from the same era, it struck me how similar this break down is to the charts in the 60s/70s/80s/90s. Back then we tended to think of top twenty and top forty. Now, I think top 100 and top 200 is probably better simply because there are so many more artists vying for the same space. So, the top twenty was always made up of mostly pop acts. (In the UK, Elton was seen as a pop act, and Queen had a foot in both camps). Pop acts back then included disco, funk, punk, glam, new wave - the acts who relied heavily on singles.
The top forty saw a few rock artists, the rare random classical artist, and then the pop acts going up or coming back down. That kind of fits with the stats you read out from Spotify. It is a similar shape.
But of course, the ones at the top might or might not stay there. The reason the rock acts in the old days made so much money (and remember, some of them didn't release singles), was because in the album charts, they were almost always in there. I think Dark Side of the Moon was in the album charts for years! A lot of that time was below the top 40 perhaps, but it was still in there, and so still selling. Whereas the pop acts often didn't sell albums unless they were getting radio plays from a single. Their careers had far more peaks and troughs.
Perhaps it shows that after decades of arguing over streaming music, piracy, and all the other complications that have accompanied staggering into the digital world, the final result is not that much different from where we all started!