Measuring Attention on Spotify Playlists: Followers vs. Listeners

Not all playlists are created equal, and followers don't mean everything

Measuring Attention on Spotify Playlists: Followers vs. Listeners
Jason Joven
Jason Joven
May 21, 20188 min read
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In March 2018, we explored the idea of content-based (CN), context-based (CX), and hybrid (HB) playlists on the Spotify platform…if you missed it, check it out here for some context (pun fully intended).

But essentially, CN playlists represented the traditional way of categorizing music (e.g., genres, countries), CX playlists focused more on the user (e.g., working out, gaming, day of the week), and HB playlists mixed both types. Of the 950+ playlists at the time from Spotify’s Genres & Moods section of their interface, CN playlists were understandably more plentiful (57%).

More notably, CX and HB playlists outdid them in both median followers per playlist (HB had over 237K follows vs. CN’s 103K) and percentage follower gain since March 2017 (CX had 84% gain vs. CN’s 62%). The evidence pointed towards context being more and more of a meaningful touch point with Spotify users.