Proton’s 1st DJ mixes on Spotify & Apple Music hit 1 million streams. Here’s what we’ve learned so far!
Every October, the Proton crew descends on Amsterdam for ADE: the Amsterdam Dance Event, the electronic music industry’s largest conference. In 2018 we had something special to announce: for the first time, the 1300+ electronic music labels powered by Proton would be able to distribute DJ mixes to Spotify & Apple Music. Not only would the artists and labels earn money for each played track in the mix, but the DJs would be getting paid too.
Since launching Phase 1 of the beta in October, our 1st mixes on Spotify & Apple Music have now driven over 1 million paid streams for our artists & music labels. We’re just getting started, but here’s what we’ve learned so far!
More Plays
Being featured in the mix of an established DJ can drastically increase the number of plays a song can receive. In some cases, songs saw over a 300% increase by being featured in a mix. On average, being featured in just 1 mix can drive a track’s streams up by over 5%.
As Proton opens up the platform to more DJs, we expect these figures to climb even higher. In the years ahead, we expect Proton’s electronic music labels might generate more via DJ mixes than they do from a song’s unmixed original release.
Longevity
At Proton, our 1300 electronic music labels generally see a majority of their revenue from paid downloads on Beatport, where a track sees most of its sales during the 1st month of release.
But with DJ mixes on Spotify and Apple Music, we discovered something interesting: mixes have a much longer shelf life than track sales on Beatport. With mixes, listeners keep coming back for months to listen over and over again, with hardly any drop off:
In the graph above, Spotify data from four of our DJ mixes are displayed over the month of February. Each of these mixes are generating hundreds of plays per day. And these mixes have been out for months: they’re not new releases.
For our artists and music labels, this means their tracks can now generate more revenue in the long run when they get featured in a DJ mix on Spotify. Beyond a quick sales window on Beatport, labels on Proton can now generate streaming earnings from their back catalog reliably & continuously over time.
Playlist Independence
For many artists and labels, streaming success often depends on placement in an official Spotify playlist. These playlists are highly competitive and difficult to break into. Even if you do get placement, it only helps drive traffic for one song — and only while it’s featured in the playlist. After a few weeks, Spotify updates the music in the playlist and the traffic ends there.
So for many small electronic music labels, getting featured in Spotify’s playlists is a rare & short lived lottery ticket. But with DJ mixes, things change.
DJs have always been powerful curators, but now their taste making prowess can easily drive streaming traffic where it actually generates revenue for the artist and labels. And, unlike official Spotify playlists, each mix remains online over time: the tracklist doesn’t change every week.
Music labels are already familiar with getting their tracks to DJs via promo pools and pre-release mail outs. Now, that network can help the artist and label drive revenue better than ever.
Spotify Followers Matter
After launching our beta, one of the most common questions Proton got asked by our music labels was: what artists should we ask to make the 1st mixes?
Unsurprisingly, we’ve learned that (so far) that the more followers or monthly listeners an artist has on Spotify, the better their DJ mix will perform.
So, shortly after launching our beta, Proton rolled out a big upgrade: our music labels can now easily monitor the Spotify follower numbers for their entire artist roster in one place, making it easy to identify the best artists to invite to the beta for their 1st mixes.
Where do we go from here?
Right now, Proton’s beta is in Phase 1: label mixes. Any music label on our platform can publish mixes featuring music from their own catalog. Very soon, we’ll be expanding to Phase 2, which opens things a bit further. We’ll be posting updates here on our Medium blog!
Proton is a platform that powers over 1300 independent electronic music labels. Beyond distribution, our smart contracts completely automate contracts, statements, and payments for music labels and their artists. Now, we’re bringing DJ mixes to Spotify & Apple Music. If you’re an electronic music label not distributed by Proton yet, and want to learn more, contact us!
