21/06/2025
The obsession with Spotify monthly listeners is one of the biggest things about the music industry right now that I don’t get!
It’s a stat we all look at, post about, stress over, and compare, but barely anyone seems to talk about what it actually means. It sounds like it should measure your fanbase, your impact, your reach. But in reality, it just tells you how many unique people have heard three seconds of one of your tracks in the last 28 days.
That’s not a fanbase. That’s not loyalty. That’s not momentum.
And yet, this number ends up defining how a lot of artists see themselves. I’ve seen people spiral over drops in monthly listeners after a playlist run ends. I’ve seen artists buy fake playlist placements just to inflate that stat for a big meeting. I’ve even seen people hit huge numbers with zero clue who’s actually listening.
It’s a broken system that rewards surface-level growth and punishes real, slow, steady development, the kind of growth that actually leads to tickets sold, merch moved, and fans sticking around for years.
I get why people chase it. I’ve done it too. We’re told that big numbers = success. But what does success look like if it disappears as soon as the playlist ends or the algorithm shifts?
I’d rather help artists focus on building something they can control. Knowing who your fans are. Talking to them directly. Creating a community. Showing up in a way that means people come back, not just hear a hook and forget your name five seconds later.
If Spotify hiding monthly listeners helps shift our focus back to real connection instead of fake reach, I’m all for it.
Because no one builds a career off a number they can’t explain or use. But plenty of artists build careers off a hundred die-hard fans who care.
That’s what this is really about.
Not getting rid of data. Just using the right data.
If you’re building something real, something long-term, keep going. Keep showing up. And stop worrying about numbers that were never built for artists in the first place.
