Not sure what Spotify Popularity scores are, or want to learn more about how they can help grow your music label? Check our official blog post first!
Music labels powered by Proton can easily access the Spotify Popularity scores of their entire artist roster and promo pool, free and automatically. Here's how!
Visit your "Subscribers" tab in your music label's Proton Promo pool.
If you don't have full access to the promo pool yet, contact our support team!
Any artist/DJ you've added to your promo pool will have their Spotify popularity score listed in your subscriber tab, updated automatically!
This requires adding your artist roster to your promo pool, if you haven't already, along with any DJs/artists who you'd like to see their popularity score for.
Want to just see the popularity scores for your label's own artist roster? You can filter the "Subscribers" tab to display just your "Artists On Roster".
Strategy Guides for Popularity Scores
Add your entire artist roster to your promo pool. This is a great way to build community, connect more deeply with your artists, and cultivate ongoing relationships simply by observing their reactions to the music you're releasing! Proton makes this easy, when you click "Add Subscriber", all the recommended artists will be your roster to quickly add. Once added, you can easily see all their scores.
Want to increase your chances of getting featured in official Spotify playlists? In our experience so far, getting featured is much more likely when your release has an artist with a popularity score closer to 40 or 50. Aiming to have an artist in this range on each release is a powerful way to grow your label over time, but may require considerable investment of energy, time, or money. Make sure you're utilizing our Easy Expenses feature to help you automatically recoup costs. If you'd like help, our strategy team is here to support you -- contact us any time for guidance and ideas!
Looking to boost your passive income from streaming? In general, a DJ mix on Spotify can boost a track's plays by over 10% in our experience. But when the mix is by an artist with a popularity score closer to 30 or higher, the boost can be significantly higher! Here are some ideas to consider exploring, if they feel right to you:
Archive Access
Whenever you have a new release on the way, consider inviting the artist(s) with the highest popularity score(s) to do an Archive Access mix.
Creative Deals
When developing new releases, consider approaching artists with higher popularity scores and offering them creative deals. In exchange for offering them a higher advance or royalty rate than usual, you could require they deliver an Archive Access mix as part of the deal for their new remix or original material!
Proton's expenses for Artists and Tracks get connected to DJ mixes automatically, so a mix helps recoup costs faster, which can help justify the bigger fee or royalty rate.
Check your feedback!
Keep an eye on the promo pool feedback coming in. When an artist with a higher popularity score is engaging positively with your new releases, consider inviting them on board for your next release, potentially with a creative deal (see above point.)
Proactively engage with bigger artists on your upcoming releases and see if they’re open to getting more involved.
In general, pay attention to the popularity scores of the artists on each of your upcoming releases. If your next release has an artist with a popularity score in the 20–30 or higher range, consider inviting them to do an Archive Access mix as part of their promo leading up to (or right after) the release. In our experience, artists are more likely to agree to a mix before the release date, especially during the pre-order period.
This may require a bit more time and creativity engaging with artists to encourage them to make a mix. How can your label give extra exposure to that mix? If your music label is on Proton, we may have room on our channels to feature the mix and widen its reach. Get in touch with our team, as we may be able to feature your mix!
If you'd like help getting started or have questions/need further guidance, our strategy team is available and open to support your label's specific situation. Get in touch! 😊
It’s not just about popular artists: it’s about helping grow music labels, their core artists, and the connection between them.
Music labels are often defined by unique artists, who may not be as well known yet, that release on that label because of a connection and alignment with that label’s vision and sound: and because that music label can help unique artists grow and connect with a wider audience. Popularity scores empower music labels who utilize them to strategically pair their definitive artists with more widely known popular ones, via remixes or DJ mixes or compilations. This grows the record label, its core artists, and strengthens/deepens the connection between them.