Is Spotify doing away with the monthly listeners total? Multiple users say they can no longer see the metric – at least in its original position on artist profiles. Photo Credit: Alexander Shatov
Is Spotify removing monthly listener counts? Possibly, as some users are reporting the data’s absence from the usual spot on artist profiles.
The potential monthly listener removal just recently began making waves on social media, including with a number of related screenshots. One such image shows Diplo’s artist profile sans monthly listeners, and another displays Playboi Carti’s own page without the audience-size metric.
But different users (and screenshots) yet are confirming that the details remain live on certain versions of Spotify. And at the time of writing, this appeared to be the case for the majority of commenters.
Addressing the matter in an Instagram comment, Spotify seemingly attributed the change to “a bug for a small set of users.” However, as the service is known to pilot fresh features and more for select accounts – albeit without necessarily committing to full-scale releases – those remarks might not tell the whole story.
Another interesting point: One Redditor confirmed that monthly listeners had been axed from their usual position (atop artist profiles, that is). As described by the same individual, though, the totals were still viewable with a bit of scrolling as part of artists’ “about” sections.
Time will tell whether the change – interestingly, rapper Russ recently addressed the topic on social media – rolls out across the board. Possibly for consumption and usage reasons, other DSPs don’t display monthly listeners at all, and one can argue that the top-level number is of little relevance in the grand scheme of things.
(Especially given the considerable royalty-rate differences between established and emerging markets, there’s something to be said for adopting a monthly listener total tied to the artist’s audience in the country from which one is accessing the platform.)
On the other side of the coin, if early social-media reactions are any indication, many Spotify users are accustomed to using the service and viewing monthly listeners in particular.
“Jeez I got the update earlier and it’s the same for me,” one Redditor weighed in. “This is insane, it was a great feature, context on how popular an artist is can be important.”
(Of course, the importance – or lack thereof – of artists’ popularity from a monthly-listener perspective is a separate discussion altogether.)
“Dumb decision,” another commenter vented on X, “it’s a cool way to track statistics (Just like with streams), and it separates Spotify from other platforms.”
“yeah because it’s not accurate anymore all these tiktok viral singers have to do is get their song on random fake playlists created by their labels and suddenly they’re a top 50 artist on Spotify,” criticized an individual of a different opinion.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.