Spotify Opens Up its Data Firehose to Artists

spotfiy fan insightsSpotify is set to make its listening data available to musicians, record labels and more with its new Fan Insights feature, which is being rolled out as a limited beta in an effort to help artists better understand their listeners and grow their fanbase.

The move will give third parties access to the data from 1.7bn hours of listening every month from Spotifys 75m users, providing the music industry with concrete information on audience demographics, locations, engagement and more.

Spotify has struggled to appeal to artists and record labels in the past, with several performers including Taylor Swift, AC/DC and Radiohead notably pulling their catalogue from the service or refusing to allow their songs to be streamed in the first place over concerns about how much revenue they would see from streaming content.

By opening up its valuable audience data to artists, Spotify is clearly offering an olive branch to the music industry, which is understandably reticent to embrace digital channels which have seen its revenues and profits dramatically drop over the past 20 years.

“Were constantly looking for ways to bring artists and fans closer together and weve worked closely with artists and their teams to understand the most useful insights we can provide,” said Mark Williamson, head of artist services at Spotify. “Our ultimate goal is to help artists make more informed decisions about how to establish meaningful connections with their audience.”