spotify
Page: 22
Bad Bunny is the latest artist to celebrate their streaming success by visiting Spotify’s newly launched Billions Club series. The Grammy-winning global superstar stopped by the series to enjoy a “Billions Brunch” with some of his closest friends and collaborators.
“The feeling of having 1 billion streams for this song right now is the same emotion I felt when I got 5,000 plays for the first time,” Bad Bunny said. “For me, it’s just as big knowing that there are people who want to listen and want to enjoy what you make.”
The song in question is “Tití Me Preguntó,” a track from his historic Un Verano Sin Ti album that officially reached 1 billion Spotify streams on Jan. 23. According to Spotify, Bad Bunny has 12 songs with more than 1 billion streams each on the platform — more than any other artist in Spotify history. He has accumulated 58 billion streams on the service, reigning as Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year for the past three years.
In the video, Bad Bunny feasted on a lavish meal set on several plaques that commemorated his other songs with over 1 billion Spotify streams, including “Yonaguni,” “Dákiti” (with Jhayco) and “MIA” (with Drake). In addition to basking in his recordbreaking streaming success, the “Después de la Playa” singer also recounted the story behind the creation of “Tití Me Preguntó.” When tasked with telling the story of the song in 10 seconds, he replied, “That’s impossible. That’s a lifetime of love and romance.”
“It’s a song that was born very spontaneously,” he added. “All of the people mentioned in the song exist in real life. Nothing I say in that song is a lie, including the part where I say I want to fall in love, but I can’t.”
Nonetheless, Bad Bunny declined to specify which aunt he was singing about, because “they’ll get jealous and create a mess.”
Toward the end of his Billions Club episode, Bad Bunny made sure to thank his fans for their continued support, as well as his mother and father for believing in him “not just in music, but with every decision [he’s] made” in his life.
Bad Bunny has earned 11 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including his sole No. 1 single “I Like It” (with Cardi B & J Balvin). On the Billboard 200, he has notched five top 10 projects, two of which have reached the ranking’s summit: El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo (one week) and Un Verano Sin Ti (13 weeks).
As the Hollywood strikes continue, five of the most popular late-night talk show hosts had an idea to meet up every week to discuss the complexities behind the ongoing discussions and protests. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news As a result, Spotify revealed on Tuesday (Aug. 29) […]
The year of Taylor Swift is continuing strong. The superstar broke another record on Spotify on Tuesday (Aug. 29), becoming the first female artist in the streaming platform’s history to reach 100 million monthly listeners. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Spotify announced the news on social media, […]
Post Malone got the ultimate shout-out this week when his debut breakthrough 2016 single, “White Iverson,” crossed the 1 billion streams mark on Spotify and the man who inspired it gave Austin some love.
“Congrats on 1 billion Spotify streams,” retired 11-time NBA All-star Allen Iverson said in a video tribute posted by Spotify. “The whole world loves this song and I’m honored to be a part of it. Keep that same form, Post.”
According to the commemorative clip, “White Iverson” became the 10th song to cross that magic mark back on April 10, a momentous occasion that was celebrated with a memorial plaque sent to the rapper during his two-night stand at London’s O2 Arena in May.
In the video — which was part of Monday’s roll-out of the second episode of Spotify’s Billion Club: The Series show — we see Malone unwrap his latest shiny honor, and in typical fashion he wonders if he could shotgun a whole beer through it. He then promptly sets up a game of Backstage Plaque Pong, using the Spotify honor as an excuse to play his favorite drinking contest. He also takes time to tell the story behind the music.
“I made the beat and I wrote the song but I didn’t know how to work ProTools and so I took it over to my buddy’s house,” he explains as he, of course, pours a full beer into the plaque after promising to find a “cool spot” for his new hardware in the studio he’s building at home.
“It’s such a cool thing looking at something and saying ‘we did that… the team did that and the people like the music that much enough to play it a billion times,’” he said. “I couldn’t be more… I guess grateful is the word I’m looking for. It feels super cool that the song does connect with people, and I’m just happy to bring joy into anyone’s life when I can. It’s an amazing feeling for me, and that really gave me the confidence and courage to keep attempting to do what I love. I just appreciate all the support, and it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world for me.”
Malone also noted that beloved point guard Iverson’s shooting inspired his own legendary lights-out beer pong game — which AI also gave props to in his message — ending with footage of Iverson miming a jumper fading into Posty arcing a perfect shot into the suds-soaked plaque. “White Iverson” debuted on Malone’s SoundCloud channel in 2015 and then served as the lead single from his 2016 debut album, Stoney.
The singer is currently on tour in support of his Austin album, with the final show on his North American summer tour slated for Saturday (Aug. 19) at Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino, CA.
Check out the Spotify video below.
[embedded content]
Two weeks into earnings reports for the second quarter of 2023, the music streaming business is showing that subscriptions — not advertising — are the dependable driving force behind the industry’s growth.
Subscriptions — which accounted for 65% of the U.S. recorded music business in 2022, up from 63% in 2021, according to the RIAA — aren’t affected by economic forces that influence how brands spend their advertising dollars. Consumers continue to pay monthly or annual fees for Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer and other offerings. Even faced with higher prices (see “pricing power” below), more people are opting for subscription services.
More information will be gleaned in the coming weeks from earnings results from Warner Music Group (Aug. 8), HYBE (Aug. 8), Sony Music Entertainment (Aug. 9), Tencent Music Entertainment (Aug. 15), Cloud Music (Aug. 24) and Anghami (no date set).
Based on earnings by Universal Music Group, Spotify, Deezer, Believe and Reservoir Media, here are three takeaways from reported results through Aug 4.
The subscription market is holding up well. Spotify beat expectations for both monthly active users (MAUs) and subscribers, “aided by improved retention and marketing efficiencies,” the company explained in its July 25 shareholder presentation. Spotify’s premium subscribers grew 17% year-over-year to 220 million, beating its guidance of 217 million. Spotify’s MAUs increased 27% year-over-year to 551 million compared to guidance of 530 million. Universal Music Group attributed subscription growth in its recorded music segment — 13% in the second quarter and 11.6% in the first half of the year — to “broad-based growth in subscribers across all major global platform partners.” Reservoir Media CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi cited Spotify’s “higher than expected subscriber numbers” in the company’s Aug. 2 earnings call and said its strong quarterly results “reflect increasing demand trends for streaming music globally.” Not all subscription services made gains, though. Deezer lost 100,000 subscribers from June 30, 2022, to June 30, 2023, and Pandora ended the quarter with 6.2 million subscribers, down 100,000 from 6.3 million a year earlier.
Services have pricing power. Spotify raised its individual subscription plan in the U.S. on July 24 to great fanfare. After all, the price had gone unchanged since the service launched in the United States in 2011, although the family plan price increased by $2 per month in 2021. Spotify is relatively late to the game, though. Deezer raised its price from 9.99 euros to 10.99 euros in January 2022 — a major factor in the company’s direct subscriber average revenue per user climbing 4.9% year over year. Apple Music and Amazon Music both raised their prices last year as well. And according to Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira, the increase had “pretty much no impact on churn” — the number of subscribers who leave a service over a period — and “clearly demonstrated that music is highly undervalued, and that platforms like us have more pricing power than initially anticipated.” That said, Folgueira stated that Deezer’s guidance for full-year revenue growth does not include another price increase later in the year.
The advertising market continues to have challenges. At Spotify, music advertising revenue grew in the “mid-single digits” year-over-year, lower than the 12% (15% at constant currency) growth in total ad-supported revenue. That implies advertising revenue from podcasts, which was up 30% year-over-year, contributed to most of the growth. Spotify also noted “softer pricing due to the macroeconomic environment” that offset double-digit gains in impressions. Universal Music Group’s ad-supported streaming revenues were up 5% in the second quarter and 2% in the first half of the year. UMG’s CFO Boyd Muir said “it’s too early to call a positive turnaround in the market.” Believe is “still impacted by the weak ad-supported monetization,” said CFO/chief strategy officer Xavier Dumont. The advertising malaise extends to broadcast radio, too. Weak national advertising “remained the main factor driving a decline in total revenue,” Frank Lopez-Balboa, Cumulus executive vp/treasurer/CFO, said in the company’s July 28 earnings call. National brands appear likely to increase ad spending in the second half of the year, however, according to B Riley Securities analyst Daniel Day.
A year in to Spotify’s partnership with FC Barcelona and the music streamer and leading European soccer club are now focused on evolving the sponsorship deal to create “cultural moments” through sports and music collaboration.
“One year ago, we said this would be more than a partnership because we like to say that Barça is more than a club and that’s important because it’s our motto but also important when it comes to partnerships,” says Sergi Ricart, chief marketing and revenue officer, FC Barcelona. “It’s been a pioneer strategic partnership. The engagement of new audiences with the club and the engagement that the content we created has seen, it’s been massive.”
The deal — touted as a new way for the streaming giant to amplify artists across the globe — spans four seasons for team shirts and three seasons for training shirts. It will also rebrand FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium as Spotify Camp Nou, following an extensive redevelopment project that’s scheduled to be ready for the 2024-2025 season. The partnership kicked off with two major artist campaigns featuring Drake‘s OVO and Rosalía‘s Motomami logos, respectively, on the Blaugrana team jerseys. Rosalía’s logo was the first to be featured on both the men’s and women’s teams home kits as part of the partnership.
Following the unveiling of Rosalía’s match kit on March 15, searches for “Rosalía” and “Motomami” on Spotify increased by over 100% globally and by nearly 200% in Spain (compared to searches on March 14), according to the streaming company. Moreover, in the hour after the El Clásico match ended on March 19, global streams of Rosalía tracks climbed on Spotify in multiple markets globally, including Egypt where the tracks saw a more than 220% boost, 170% in Morocco and almost 70% in Nigeria.
“Rosalía’s El Clásico match kit drove streams and awareness because that match has two or three times more global eyeballs than the Super Bowl. These artists are getting fully integrated campaigns and it’s stuff that is enormous in marketing value,” explains Marc Hazan, vp partnerships, Spotify.
Now, with the partnership in its second year, artists such as Anitta and Fuerza Regida have visited the training facilities for the making of the Barça on Tour summer playlist . And, during the team’s stop in L.A. on July 26 for their match against Arsenal, Daddy Yankee toured the Spotify studio with Barcelona players in tow where he showed them a behind-the-scenes-look at his recording process. Additionally, the partnership will support artists on the LED boards during the Barcelona matches while on the U.S. tour.
“We’re creating a cultural moment and for the club it’s so important,” adds Ricart. “We humbly think that we’re the biggest global sports brand but how can we move into a cultural brand and with the support of this partnership we are moving that way.”
Following its more than 20 global activations during the 2022-2023 season, Hazan is looking to tap into different markets immersing in different genres. “This is a long partnership for Spotify, we’re very invested,” he says. “It’s fair to say that football and music are two great passions, so to combine the two is something pretty unique and when you have Barcelona, arguably one of the biggest clubs with a massive following, you’re in a position where they want to partner heavily and there’s a full set of music rights available, that doesn’t come up every day.”
So-called “super listeners” make up an average of 2% of all artist’s listeners, but account for 18% of all streams for the artist — a figure that can grow to 30% of all streams for the biggest artists in the world, according to a new study released by Spotify For Artists.
That’s the headline takeaway from a new report by the leading digital service provider, which focuses on how an artist’s most dedicated fans drive streaming activity and engagement on the platform. For the study — which tracked listening behavior during several different periods across the first half of the year — Spotify broke down percentages for artists based on their monthly listeners, identifying how small segments of an artist’s fan base contribute higher percentages of streams than the majority of listeners. The company doesn’t explicitly lay out how it defines a “super listener,” other than to say that it is “your most dedicated active listeners in the past 28 days” who “are also the most likely to keep streaming your music.”
While the 18% figure is an overall average, super listeners tend to drive the highest percentage of streams for the biggest and the smallest artists, the company found. For artists with 0-10,000 monthly listeners, 1% of super listeners drove 22% of all monthly streams; for artists with 25 million or more monthly listeners, 5% of those fans drove 30% of all monthly streams. Artists with between 5 million and 25 million monthly listeners also scored highly, with 3% of super listeners driving 20% of all monthly streams, while those with between 1 million and 5 million saw 2% of listeners drive 16% of streams. Both the 10,000-100,000 range and the 100,000 to 1 million range saw 1% of listeners drive 13% of streams.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, those super listeners are also much more likely to purchase artist merch through Spotify, too. For artists with more than 10,000 monthly listeners, 2% of their super listeners accounted for 52% of all merch purchases, while the remaining 98% of listeners made up the remaining 48% of merch sales. And there is a top 10 market breakdown for where those super listeners come from, too: four of the top 10 markets are in Latin America (Chile at No. 1; Mexico at No. 2; Argentina at No. 6; and Colombia at No. 7) and three are in Asia (Hong Kong at No. 4; Japan at No. 8; the Philippines at No. 10). The remaining are Canada (No. 3), the United States (No. 5) and Poland (No. 9).
Other statistics in the report: new releases can boost the number of listeners to super-status by almost 20%, while retention of those fans appears to be high, with more than 2/3s of those new superfans still listening six months later. Check out the full report here.
The study comes amid an industry-wide conversation about streaming royalties, how exactly they should be allocated and whether a mechanism should exist to reward artists with dedicated fan bases, and how that should be implemented. But super fans are boosting artists in other ways in addition to streaming numbers — CD, cassette and vinyl sales are all up this year so far, according to Luminate’s mid-year report, which it attributes to superfans, with 15% of the U.S. population spending 80% more than the average fan in a given month.
Calling all Swifties who use Spotify — this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. The streaming service has unveiled a brand new interactive experience designed to let users officially decide their five favorite Taylor Swift albums, also known in the community as: “Eras.” To try out Spotify’s new “My Top 5: Taylor Swift’s Eras” […]
Spotify reported its revenues rose 11% for the second quarter as surging monthly active users and growth in premium subscribers tamped down costs from staff cuts in the previous three months. The company’s total revenue €3.2 billion ($3.53 billion) was up 11% from the year ago quarter, or up 14% in constant currency, a measure […]
Spotify is launching its Most Necessary Live series of live shows highlighting regional rap scenes and rappers in various cities across the U.S., Billboard can exclusively announce Monday (July 24). Serving as a physical extension of Spotify’s editorially curated Most Necessary playlist — dubbed as “the official voice of the next generation on Spotify” — Most Necessary Live […]