Confessions of a Playlist Editor - Rorschach Tests and Spotify For Artists data. Part One

Did you know that data has a face??

Well, maybe not a face. But sometimes when I look at data, I can see a mouth.??

And the way your mouth looks can tell me a?story.?

It would seem obvious that If you're angry, your mouth has a particular?shape and of course when you're smiling your face looks different too.?

If you're an artist, you likely have access to data and if you look at your Spotify For Artists data long enough. at least on desktop, you may start to see shapes and sizes of not only a mouth, but of other things too.?

Each shape tells a story about how your?music may be doing. And just like looking up at the white fluffy clouds against the clear deep blue sky while laying on your back in the park, you can usually see patterns or shapes that tell you something is happening with your music (or not).?

I've worked with data?during my time at streaming services and afterwards and sometimes interpreting it is like taking a Rorschach?test!? The shape and what I see in the data reveals a general story of your music very quickly to me.??

Here's a few shapes I see.? *(Note: Sometimes I drop off the 'other' category because it doesn't always make sense)

The Smile -?See that happy face??That's amazing and you're beautiful! ?Everything looks great.?Consumption is nice.?People are searching for your name and your music,?They've saved a good deal of it to their library too and still listen to it often.? They don't seem to be interested in the 3rd party playlists you bought however.?? Editorial support in lists too and it's doing okay.? Big bonus is that you got your audience to hit the follow button!?Nice work

The Jack O' Lantern -?Oh no!??Someone is missing a tooth!? No editorial playlists?? Never mind, it looks like the TikTok pathway is working out fine!

Sledding Into A Wall - Weeeeeeeeee, down the hill I go in the snow! OMG, what's that at the end there?? This is an odd one and very seldom seen.? A lot of people either hooked up their Spotify account through their Alexa or like watching your live stream on Twitch.. Still streaming it though.

The Vader - I love Star Wars too and Darth's smile/frown? is really unusual to see.?When did your buddy's playlists equal engagement?

The Bird -?I can't help but see a big middle finger pointed my way when I see that you just spent your digital marketing budget on 3rd party playlists and see no engagement. ?But there it is staring right back at you and me.? Hard to unsee it.? And it ain't good.

The Most Beautiful Thing To See - You know when that tricked out car rolls up next to you with hip hop pounding?? All you hear is subwoofers, midrange and the shaking of fiberglass.??This is the equalizer setting visualization of that?and?It's a beautiful?thing to see in your data.?

Farming Somewhere? I don't ever want to see this, but I have. Cut it out.

See you next time for Part 2

John