to access popularity scores right now, check our FAQ!
Introducing Spotify Popularity Scores: Know which artists can help you grow.
Proton’s new upgrade is free and automatic for all our labels.
Wouldn’t it be nice if your record label’s next release was more likely to be featured in Spotify’s official playlists? Or if your electronic music label could more easily and reliably boost a song’s passive income from streaming by 10%… 50%… 100%?
The latest upgrade at Proton makes it easier and more affordable for electronic music labels to reach these goals. If you’re curious, read on!
Here’s what’s new at Proton: Spotify “Popularity Scores” are now available to all our label managers, free and automatically, for their entire artist roster — and all the DJs in their promo pool, too.
If you’re a music label powered by Proton and looking to access your popularity scores right now, check our FAQ! The below article explains popularity scores, why they’re important, and how to strategically utilize them to grow your label.
Spotify Popularity Scores? What are they and why do they matter?
If you manage an electronic music label already, you know working with popular artists can grow your label. However, with an ever-growing number of talented musicians, it may be challenging to decide who to collaborate with. Popularity Scores help eliminate this uncertainty.
You’re likely already familiar with Spotify artist metrics like Followers and Monthly Listeners. The “Popularity Score” is different: it’s a number ranging from 0 to 100 tracking an artist’s current popularity across Spotify. Think of it as an artist’s “temperature” in the almighty algorithm.
Why this matters: Popularity Scores help label owners predict success, in our experience so far, better than followers or monthly listeners.
- OFFICIAL PLAYLISTS: Artists with a Popularity Score closer to 50 and above are more likely to be featured in official Spotify playlists.
- DJ MIXES: Artists with a Popularity Score closer to 30 and above are significantly more likely to boost track plays in their mixes by over 10%.
Currently, artist Popularity Scores are NOT visible in Spotify’s own apps — not even within Spotify for Artists! And while 3rd party analytics sites might have them, generally these other platforms are not free OR not easy to look up and compare multiple artists.
Now, label owners can get them free and easily at Proton.
POPULARITY SCORES x OFFICIAL SPOTIFY PLAYLISTS
Over 2000 independent electronic music labels are now powered by Proton, and since we help labels pitch their music to Spotify’s curation team, we’ve seen how popularity scores can impact (or predict) a label’s chances of getting featured.
In general, the closer an artist’s popularity score is to 40 or 50, the more likely they are to get featured in an official Spotify playlist.
If you have a release without any artists in this popularity score range, you may struggle to get the features and exposure you’re hoping for on Spotify.
Important: Having an artist with a popularity score in the 40–50 range does not guarantee placement, but it absolutely increases your chances.
Artists with scores this high (40–50) might be more expensive, either in time or money, to collaborate with. But with Popularity Scores, you can at least target artists who will have a better chance of getting the results you’re looking for.
And if your label features smaller artists, now you have a free/easy tool to help identify and sign bigger remixers for them, who can help them grow.
On the flip side, signing originals from these bigger artists and inviting your smaller artists to remix them is a great way to invest in your artists, as helping your core artist roster grow reliably through your investment of time/money is one of the core needs a music label helps fill.
POPULARITY SCORES x DJ MIXES
Now for the fun part! Proton is the #1 provider of DJ mixes to Spotify and Apple Music, with hundreds of mixes uploaded in 2022.
In 2022, on average, being featured in a DJ mix on Spotify/Apple Music boosted a track’s earnings/exposure by over 10%. This means if your track got featured in 10 DJ mixes, you could have doubled streaming earnings.
But we were curious: what DJ mixes boosted plays by more than 10%?
We noticed an absolutely unsurprising trend: the more popular a DJ, the more likely their mix would boost plays by over 10%. And it was easy to predict the success of a mix based on the DJ’s popularity score.
We found that if an artist’s popularity was closer to 30 or higher, their mix would likely be more successful. Here are 7 anonymized examples from actual DJ Mixes from artists with the following popularity scores:
Popularity Score | Resulting Boost*
29 | Boosted 60%
31 | Boosted 30%
33 | Boosted 73%
36 | Boosted 57%
38 | Boosted 100%
43 | Boosted 108%
44 | Boosted 700%
* The boost is the increase in plays, on average, the mix generated for the tracks featured in the mix. So the last one in the list increased plays by 7x!
Put simply: to grow your passive income as an electronic music label, you can reliably do so by inviting DJs to make Spotify mixes of your catalog.
Proton makes it incredibly easy to do this. Here’s how:
- We have a free/automatic promo pool platform, where you can invite DJs to your promo pool and see their popularity scores.
- You can then offer them Archive Access, which gives DJs free/easy access to your entire back catalog — in exchange for making a mix!
- Either you (the label) or the DJ can then upload the mix to Spotify/Apple, with everyone’s earnings being managed automatically by Proton. DJs earn a share of the mix too, getting 10% of every track streamed.
(Label FAQ) • (DJ FAQ)
Important: A DJ mix from an artist with popularity scores in this range does NOT guarantee these results: but you will certainly be more likely to get these results compared to working with artists with lower scores.
Putting it all together: Strategies & Pro Tips
#1 • 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.
#2 • Popular artists may require investment, but not necessarily financial loss or extra accounting work.
Working with artists with a popularity score of 40–50 or higher can certainly be a challenge and often may require a paid advance to the artist. At Proton, we help labels easily/automatically manage expense deductions. If you’re not already using this feature at Proton, get in touch for help!
If your label is planning to pay a bigger artist to appear on a release, strongly consider including an Archive Access mix as part of the deal: in addition to the new originals or remix from the bigger artist, also ask them to make a DJ mix which can be released on Spotify and Apple. If their popularity score is in the 30 or higher, you will likely recoup expenses faster!
#3 • Be creative with your promo pool and aware of feedback!
Pay attention to the artists and DJs who are supporting your music in your promo pool. If an artist with a high popularity score leaves positive feedback on your music, strongly consider inviting them to do a new project with you — an original EP, a remix, an Archive Access mix, etc.
#4 • 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!
I’m a label manager. How do I get involved?
Popularity Scores for your label’s entire artist roster and promo pool are available now inside Proton Promo, our free/automatic promo platform.
If your music label is already powered by Proton, get started here!
And if you’re not with us yet, join the waitlist and we’ll be in touch ASAP.
I’m an artist with tracks on Beatport. How do I get involved?
Speak with your label manager and send them this article! Currently only music labels powered by Proton can participate, but we can help your labels join. Ask your music label(s) to get in touch by writing our team: support@protonradio.com
Proton is the #1 provider of DJ mixes to Spotify and Apple, with over 40 million paid plays generated by our mixes. Run an electronic music label? Learn more about what we do!
