Spotify, data, and how to become indispensable to the music industry

Maybe a million streams on Spotify won't make a musician rich, but Spotify believes it will help them get rich.

Spotify launched "Spotify for Artists" on Tuesday, a one-stop shop for the industry to tap into the company's listening data. 

The pitch is simple: Spotify knows who is listening to what music, where they are, when they're listening, how long they listen for, which tracks they skip, etc. That's valuable data for artists who now make much of their money from touring and merchandising instead of music sales. 

Both examples Spotify pointed to as success stories have to do with touring. Spotify pointed to Lucy Rose, a British singer-songwriter who used Spotify data to decide to tour in Latin America, and Jake Udell, who sold out shows for two artists he represents after putting an aggressive marketing campaign behind a hit song. Read more...

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