Listomania: The Battle For Playlist Supremacy’s Winners And Losers
New Slang Media has recently released a new report detailing which labels and artists are coming out on top in the competitive world of playlisting, and what is about their strategy that makes them successful.
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Guest Post by Chris Price on New Slang Media
New Slang is excited to announce the publication of an important new report. Free to subscribers, Listomania: Winners & Losers in the Battle for Spotify Playlist Supremacy is the first in a series of two powerful and broad-ranging white papers on streaming playlist strategy.
Listomania examines, down to the level of the artist and curator, the winners and losers in the battle for playlist pre-eminence on the world’s most popular streaming service; what Spotify’s most powerful curators are doing to influence outcomes; and the impact of those strategies in the wider music ecosystem. It is the most comprehensive attempt so far to quantify the growing influence of the streaming playlist. Subscribe to New Slang to receive your free copy.
Key findings include:
1. In a mutually reinforcing interplay of streamed and broadcast music media, Justin Bieber’s current ownership of the UK and US charts is both a cause and effect of his Spotify playlist dominance.
2. Owing to the colossal power of streaming playlists, combined with a host of external factors such as ‘on-air/on-sale’ and streaming chart eligibility, radio is increasingly lagging behind in the hit-maker power stakes.
3. Of the most featured artists on Spotify-curated playlists, Universal claims the lion’s share of repertoire with 12 acts in the Top 20, followed by Sony on 4 and Warner on 3. XL (Adele) is the only indie label in the Top 20.
4. Looking at the main curation brands on the service, Spotify commands approximately 97% of playlist impact by feature and follower count, with label-owned Digster/HITS on 1.5%, Filtr on 0.8% and Topsify on 0.2%.
5. The major label-owned curation brands have strikingly different strategies with regard to playlist turnover, as well as to weighting for genre, own vs. other-label repertoire, and new vs. heritage acts.
Look out for part two in the Listomania series, Justin Bieber & The Self-Perpetuating Upward Spiral, a forensic and far-reaching examination of the music industry ‘One Per Cent’ (including Love Yourself and the Curious Case of the Accidental Hit), which will also be published here soon.
