We Aren’t Releasing Enough Music on Spotify

I’m not releasing enough music on Spotify, and, odds are, neither are you. 

Spotify, like every other social platform, is a numbers game. More streams equals more money, more money equals more time, and more time equals more freedom to create more music to release on Spotify, which, in turn, creates more streams. 

And so the cycle repeats. 

In short, more music on Spotify equals more freedom to spend our time making music, which is exactly what we want to be doing anyway. 

So how do we get there?

The road to $50k

If we want to make $50,000 per year from our royalties on Spotify, we will need to amass 12,580,297 streams within the United States in one calendar year. This boils down to 34,467 streams per day. 

Yes, we’ve covered this before. 

But what does this number look like on a per-song basis?

Well, if we only have 10 songs in our catalog, each song has to get, on average, 3,446.7 streams per day (34,467 / 10 = 3,446.7). 

At 3447 (yeah, I rounded up) streams per day, this is going to put our song at a popularity score of around 50%, making it eligible for Spotify’s editorial playlists and opening up that next level of opportunities for our music. 

But it’s safe to say that most songs won’t achieve this mark, so let’s expand this out a bit. 

What if we have 100 songs in our catalog?

To earn 34,467 streams per day from a catalog of 100 songs, each song would have to get 344.67 streams per day (34,467 / 100 = 344.67). 

At roughly 345 streams per day, this places our song at a popularity score somewhere just above 30%, making it eligible for Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist. 

But even though this is an easier mark to hit than 3447 streams per day and a popularity score of 50%, it’s still unlikely that every single song in our catalog is going to achieve this metric.

So what if we have 300 songs in our catalog?

Well, with a catalog of 300 songs, each song would only need to get 114.89 streams per day (34,467 / 300 = 114.89). 

At basically 115 streams per day, this will put our song at a popularity score of around 20%, which will not only make our song eligible for a Release Radar boost within the first four weeks after it comes out but will also see our song added to Spotify’s algorithmic Radio playlist, ensuring we received a continued influx of streams without having to do much work on top of that. 

This is a much easier goal to achieve. 

How about $10k?

Ok, so we know how many streams each song needs to achieve $50,000 per year from royalties on Spotify, but what if we’re not as interested in making a full-time income from this and we just want to treat making music like a paid hobby? 

What if we want to make $10,000 per year?

To earn $10,000 per year from Spotify, we will need to receive 2,516,059 streams within one year, which boils down to 6,893 streams per day. 

With 10 songs in our catalog, this comes out to 689.3 streams per day (6,893 / 10 = 689.3) per song. 

With 100 songs in our catalog, each song will need to get 68.93 streams per day (6,893 / 100 = 68.93). 

And with 300 songs in our catalog, each song will only need to receive 22.976 streams per day (6,893 / 300 = 22.976). 

The hardest part about this last one is simply getting 300 songs out. Getting 23 streams per day on each one of them is easy.

The 80/20 rule

Odds are not every song in our catalog is going to receive the exact same amount of streams every single day. 

What is more likely is that the performance inside our catalog of music will follow a Pareto distribution, more commonly known as the 80/20 rule.

Essentially, 20% of our songs are going to account for 80% of our streams. 

So, by consistently releasing a lot of music, we are repeatedly taking shots at the net to find those winners that will land inside that twentieth percentile and lift the rest of our catalog up as a result. 

Bonus points: watch the video breakdown here.