This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. David Pierce, writing for Wired: Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services have fundamentally changed how people listen to music. In the process, they’ve changed how artists and songs break. Radio may remain the most popular way of discovering music among casual fans, but unless you’re Drake or Rihanna, it’s hard to get any play. Plus, real fans—the people who go to concerts and buy merch and actually pay for music—use streaming services like Spotify. “Spotify playlists, and Spotify charts, and Spotify plays, have become the number one tool that labels and artists and managers are using in order to break artists and measure success,” says industry analyst Mark Mulligan. Facebook has more users, YouTube has more views, but Spotify represents more important real estate. “If you get things working on Spotify,” Mulligan says, “that’s going to crank the wheel.” I’ve heard from labels and managers that specifically target certain regions in the world to boost Spotify plays and hit charts because it may lead to getting onto a featured playlist. Expand - View Original
Does Apple have a similar thing? I haven't used AppleMusic since it launched (I know there was a redesign) but I didn't like the interface.
Most of my students learn about new/old shit from Spotify playlists. I saw a few getting into Jimmy Eat World and Death Cab from some of the alternative curated playlists/soundtracks to other shows and movies. Solid entryway
It's working. Spotify has introduced me to so many fantastic artists that I would have never heard of otherwise. So many bands that are in my wheelhouse, but are just "hobby" bands with small followings from all corners of the world that simply would have never made it onto my radar if they didn't come up on Discover Weekly. I am an iOS user, and I love most things Apple, but Spotify has got me for life because of how great their playlist and recommendation systems are.
Some bands with <1000 views on their songs are fucking incredible on Spotify Discover. Blows my mind that tons of people haven't heard of some of them. I'm sure that feature helps "break" them though, which is really cool.