Spotify Wrapped is out and all the artists and musicians are able to see the totals we have collected over the last 365 days. How many listeners, countries, playlists, and fans have we collected?
Spotify Wrapped is a really cool feature that no other digital service providers offer that showcases to each artist and Spotify user the numbers and data of their trends as a performer and a listener. This showcases and highlights Spotify’s unique data driven model.
It’s also an incredible marketing tool. Every December 1st, artists and Spotify users alike have access to their “top five artists” and people are quick to share their discoveries on Instagram and other social media.
For artists however, this is potentially where some comparison comes in.
"WOW! I got 600k streams this past year. That's incredible. I'm going to go share it to my Instagram..... oh.... looks like my friend over here got twenty million streams this past year..... maybe I'm not as far along as I thought."
WOMP.
But here's the skinny:
Numbers, data, and an emphasis on how many people one’s song has reached is not necessarily a true measure of quality or even growth in the artist process or artist development.
Perhaps it’s just evidence and reward for catering to the general trendy “sound” that the platform promotes and selects for its editorial playlists (some coin it ‘Spotify-pop’).
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The data of Spotify Wrapped can quickly go from excitement to detriment and a comparison downward spiral. And also, how much did all those streams earn you financially? All the while Spotify actively lobbies to reduce the royalty rates for artists and songwriters even further. (How much further can $.003 per stream royalty go down? Let’s find out!).
Although the data and the numbers can be extremely useful and helpful in leveraging our overall reach to people, what I believe is equally if not more important is our personal development and artistic growth and placing an importance on the art itself, not the numbers it cultivates.
How can we as artists break the cycle and measure our growth as artists in a productive and constructive way?
How can we combat the ever-changing music landscape that continues to financially devalue music and musicians and place importance on appeasing the all-powerful, artificially intelligent algorithm?
I think it starts with going back to the art itself.
I recently saw filmmaker Karen Cheng post on Instagram about how to combat frustration with “not getting likes, views, numbers you receive on a piece of content you worked really hard on.”
Those two questions to combat that frustration are:
1. Are you excited by what you made?
2. Did you learn something new?
This resonated with me greatly, and I decided to make a little meme over my wrapped numbers to hopefully encourage other artists to not compare themselves to the “bigger artists” and make sure we’re focusing on our growth as artists, and letting art be art!
After all, we don’t make art and music to appease the overlords at Spotify (or do we..?).
SO.
Did you learn something new? Are you excited by the art you’re making?
Let art be art and recognize the reasons and the people — not robots — you create for.
Chandler Juliet is a Los Angeles-based artist, songwriter, and producer. Her latest single was released October 15th and she has almost 17 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, where she is a verified artist. Chandler has performed at noted Hollywood venues such as The Troubador, The Viper Room, and Whisky-A-Go-Go. She was the guest back on Episode 216 of our weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast.