Spotify Just Made It Harder For Independent Playlists To Grow, Fans To Find Great Playlists

Spotify has removed listener counts from the Discovered On section of its apps, the streamer has confirmed.

The now missing stat, which appeared on each artist’s Spotify About tab, showed how many users discovered an artist from a playlist.

before the change

One user wrote in a Spotify forum:

“Many curators on your platform used this number to gauge whether their playlists were curated well and helping artists. Artists used these numbers to pre-screen playlists when pitching music to them. You’re forcing both to rely on the playlist follower metric, which does not always indicate a helpful playlist, unfortunately. Another example of “don’t fix it if it’s not broken”.

Fans could also use the stat to gauge interest in following playlists that featured their favorite artists.

Another user wrote:

“you’re destroying opportunities for artists to get heard. **bleep** you spotify”

after the change

A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the shift:

“In the future, this info will only be available to artists and won’t be shared publicly.”

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