Welcome back guys. It’s that time of year again, everyone’s getting their Spotify data from 2019 and sharing it around like the plague in 1300s Britain. It’s an exciting time, as a listener you get to see who your favourite artists were, what your favourite songs were, and how many hours you spent listening.
As an artist, you get to see how many people spent time listening to you, which can be a daunting thing.
My top artist this year was Taylor Swift, which shocked me a bit. While I did give Lover a good few listens upon release, so I could objectively write about and discuss it, she wasn’t someone I kept going back to.
The rest of my top 5 are as follows:
2. Hozier
3. Dermot Kennedy
4. Post Malone
5. Foy Vance
Pretty happy with that, as I did keep going back to these artists. I saw Hozier and Dermot Kennedy live this year as well, so it makes sense that they were up there.
Here’s my top songs playlist:
I like that I have a wide range of artists in there, lots of Aussies, and a few different genres. They’re all songs that will make me think of 2019 when I hear them.
This year, I listened to Spotify for a total of 9,077 minutes, which 151.3 hours. Quite a while, but not as much as 2017, where I listened to 21,005 minutes worth of music. ?
Now, I’m sure you’re all wanting me to dig into my Artist Wrapped, too, and I will. But I want to preface this by saying, that no matter who you are reading this, whether you’re an artist just starting out, someone more established, or not a musician at all, everyone has had a weird day with their artist stats today. It’s a hard thing, having tangible evidence of your success/ failures, and being able to compare it with every other Tom, Dick or Harry on the internet. I’ve spoken with people who had streams in the tens of thousands and were disappointed, people who had less and were happy. As Nick Cave once said, “my muse is not a horse,” and if you’d like to read that letter in full, you can do so here.
October 18 was my biggest day for streams this year, and so it should be, that was the day I released my second single, Veins. It averaged 21 streams per hour that day, and I am very proud of it.
My followers went up by 169%, and total listeners went up by 76%, making 308 of you (um, guys? THANK YOU!). My playlist adds went up by 7%, coming off 2018 where I had no playlist adds at all!
I was streamed for 30 hours, and my music hit 26 countries, which I think is pretty cool. My audience grew 200% in Denmark, which I think means I had 0 listeners in Denmark last year, and 2 this year. To my Denmark fans, I see you!
Jokes aside, we really don’t need to equate our worth or our music’s worth with a bunch of numbers. I know, you probably think I’m just saying that because of my small audience, but I’m not. My audience is my audience, no matter the size, and I am grateful for every single one of you listening, or reading this.
Let’s all keep focused and work on producing the best music of our lives in 2020!
Talk soon,
Al.