 From time to time Spotify, MTV, or other big corporate behemoths come out with these fan studies. And while they can seem totally lame upon first glance, I've always found these super interesting, since these are some of the only organizations who have the money to study fans' habits and they do it since they wanna understand how to make more money. This week, Spotify put out a new fan study where they put up this link filled guide on how musicians can up their game on Spotify. But I know you, my dear viewers, you don't like the information unless it's in our favorite form, a YouTube video. So this video, I will present to you all the new information Spotify dropped in this fan study and what it means for your music promotion. Hi, I'm Jesse Cannon, a music marketing nerd who's teaching musicians how to grow their fan base from zero to 10,000 fans, and this is music formation. So I should say, before we get started, this fan study isn't some secret that only people like me get who are cool in the music business and work with big artists. It's available for free to every musician and readily available in your Spotify for artist dashboard. So if you wanna go deeper with it after this video, feel free. So let's get into what's in this fan study. First, we all wanna learn how to get more streams and Spotify has some advice. One of the keys to blowing up your streaming numbers is to get fans to hold on to your song. And whether that's saving or playlisting them, it doesn't really matter. As they say, a fan that saves your track will listen to it three times more than a fan who doesn't. To me, this means I would use tools like DistroKids Hyperfowl or Spotify's free promo cards to link your song after it's been released and remind your fans to stream it with that tool so it gives them a nudge to save it. As well, make a call to action to playlist your new song from your Twitter and your Instagram stories, which can really help get those saves up and those playlist numbers higher. Since, and I quote, after a listener adds you to a personal playlist, they'll listen to you 41% more and look at your profile 12% more. And this seems to actually help with your relationship building with fans. Since they say, in fact, 60% of all merch purchased from Spotify comes from listeners who have playlisted the artist. As I'm always telling you, the best thing you could be doing is dropping music right here early. Since those new songs you drop also help the other songs you've put out since according to Spotify, catalog streams get a 15 to 20% lift on release day. As well, Spotify suggests using their new marquee campaigns to promote your music. But unfortunately, they aren't available to everyone quite yet. But they say, running a marquee makes you twice as likely to be playlisted by a user. But their promo cards are effectively the same thing and they are available to everyone by clicking the link to promote in your Spotify for artist profile. But we are talking about how building relationships makes a big difference. And Spotify gives actual data why, and I quote, your biggest fans can drive a massive amount of streams. On average, the top 5% of your fans are listening six times more than the rest. Spotify suggests that you make a music and talk show to drive those streams. Which is basically the point I made when I talked about making those. And for those who are not familiar, Spotify is teamed with Anchor to allow you to make DJ sets, you narrate or podcasts like episodes where you talk to your fans about music and play your own music as well as music from other people. And if you wanna learn more about this, the video I made on music and talk is on the screen now or in the description. Now I know this can all sound like a commercial for Spotify and all its products. But listen, the reason Spotify builds these products is they are in the business of keeping people on Spotify. So they make tools that do that. So if you use them, they will keep users there and hence why they invest in them and spend time to make this and help promote the people who keep people on their service. I mean, they also back it up with data though. I found the statistic pretty wild. There are always ways to reinvigorate a track. On average, adding or updating a canvas on your track will increase shares by 10.7%. And I know a lot of you haven't updated those canvases. And if you wanna learn more about it, I have a video on those which is linked now or in the description. Oh yeah, speaking of building relationships with fans and upping your streams. As I'm always telling you, consistency in promotion is the most important thing. And so many people get horrified when release day isn't their biggest day. But here's a real fact from the people who would know. 53% of releases peak more than seven days after release. So keep promoting after release week to make sure you're reaching anyone who missed the initial drop. So often promoting a song takes months before it peaks, but so many musicians never even work it for those full seven days. I talk to so many musicians who wanna die when on release day everything doesn't blow up. But we have to remember that it's actually a bad thing for release day to be the biggest day for you. And your promotions should be ramping up. In the video I'm dropping next week, I'm gonna put out my most detailed plan on how you do that and build up your streams over eight weeks. So be sure you're subscribed and getting notified of my videos. There's also some news that they dropped here on getting playlisted. One of the most common messages I get is artists being distressed because they combine genres or make music that is in multiple genres. I always tell them to relax since so many groups do that today. I mean, my favorite group is the 1975 and they skip around genres like it's a goddamn contest. But Spotify wants you to realize that listeners are less closed minded than many people think. And I quote, 53% of metal fans also follow hip hop artists. And Spotify has recognized this as they now say it's possible to tag your tracks with multiple genres when pitching them to playlists. So feel less confined in your pitching and realize the world is more fluid than you may think. They also had some interesting details in the new sources of traffic Spotify is seeing in 2021. Discord is moving a lot of streams. For example, in one month, Discord sent over 800,000 listeners to Spotify who wanted to listen to nearly 9 million tracks in just 14 days. But what shocked me is that LinkedIn and the running app Runkeeper are really moving big numbers. So depending on the type of music you make, I would really investigate this. Particularly if your audience is under 25, Discord really seems to be the place that the most passionate music fans are moving music streams right now. So trying to find the chats where your music lives is crucial for promotion. But I'm gonna be honest, I have no clue who in the hell is listening to music from LinkedIn recommendations. Oh yeah, probably them. One of the most shocking things here was how hard Spotify pushed merch. Saying more listeners doesn't necessarily mean more merch sales. In fact, every day up and coming artists on Spotify outsell even the biggest names in music. I have often heard people complain how much merch bar, Spotify's partner charges for merch, and since they are the sole partner with Spotify on merch, there's no other option but to have those high prices. They did give a very interesting clue on merch sales. Saying electronic music and country music sell the most hats. Strange, but I assume that strictly since the indie bands haven't tapped into how many people are wearing buckets hats today and looking like absolute fools. The last insight they had, I found particularly interesting. So many musicians concentrate on upping their streaming numbers, but they really don't focus on anywhere outside America and occasionally England. But Spotify says that Latin America consumes the most new music, and the fact check on this is definitely, if you've ever checked any posts by an artist, you see that come to Brazil commented on every big band's posts. But seriously, while this isn't the case for every style of music, so many musicians ignore in their ad campaigns and other outreach, the fact that Latin America is often a huge boost to streaming numbers and merch sales for many music acts. Okay, that's it. On this channel, we try to keep the content quick, no bullshit and packed with usable information. So if you like this video, I highly suggest you watch the playlist coming up on the end screen or in the description on how to blow up on Spotify in 2021, as that's a whole playlist of videos on how you do it with tons of techniques that artists are sleeping on. If you enjoyed this video, please like, subscribe, and most of all, get notified of when I post a new video. There's also two other playlists on the screen now. One is how to go from zero to 10,000 fans, and the other is how to get your music noticed. Thanks for watching.