Most artists I talk to are still using a Spotify strategy that stopped working a while ago
Spotify changed how it pushes music and I feel like most independent artists haven’t caught up yet.
It used to be pretty simple. Get saves early, land on a playlist, trigger Discover Weekly. That’s what everyone optimized for.
That’s not really what’s moving the needle anymore.
What I keep seeing now is that repeat listens matter way more than unique streams. Like a song that 100 people play 4 or 5 times is getting pushed harder than a song that 400 different people each listened to once and bounced.
Pre-save campaigns bring in one time listeners.
That used to be enough to trigger the algorithm. It’s not anymore. You’re getting streams but not the engagement signal Spotify actually cares about now.
The artists I see actually growing are focused on smaller audiences who genuinely love their stuff and come back to it. Not maximizing reach, just getting in front of the right people who replay.
Problem is most artists are still watching total stream counts and wondering why nothing’s happening.
They’re measuring the wrong thing.
Anyone else actually tracking their repeat listen rate? Curious what numbers people are seeing.