There are a few things that people are generally afraid about. Bats, height, depth, buttons, holes, failure, not being as good as expected, etc. And the group of creative people add some of their own fears to this list – fear of not being noticed, fear of being rejected, loss of creativity, and so on. And usually, at least when it comes to music, these fears are the ones that destroy careers. There are so many musicians that have stopped creating because of the fear, so let’s try to avoid it for now, okay?
If you are a Spotify musician, this fear is well-known to you. Due to the nature of the app, it can be scary to publish your music there. And even when the music is posted and the plays are not coming, another fear comes into play – a fear to buy Spotify plays. All because of the wrong opinions that are circulating all around now, and a misunderstood thing that turns out to be a saving vest for everyone who’s drowning.
So, what are those plays, and why are people so afraid? This won’t be a surprise for any of you reading this, but the number of plays shows how many times your music was played. Don’t confuse them with your monthly listeners – that’s how many unique people have played your music once. This number of your plays is essential in determining your level of popularity on the platform, and the Spotify algorithm is loosely based on this number.
By making it higher, musicians can “fool” the algorithm into thinking that the musician is more popular, so the algorithm will start promoting its music more. I can’t even call it “fooling”, because there is no trickery. The promotion is not some kind of magic, it is just a clever work with people and different platforms. If you don’t know how promotion companies mine all the traffic, it is not hard to guess – usual sources plus extra. Usually people get attention to things on social media, blogs, videos, influencers online, and so on. And these promotion services just take those sources and maximize them, turning small streams of plays into giant rivers of plays.
The app not only does not stop people from buying plays, it even encourages them. The more people listen to your music – the more they use Spotify, increasing in-app time, and thus making the app more popular among users. Plus, all the music that is only available on Spotify and popular because of the pre-bought plays helps an app to retain its leading position in the field. Plus, Spotify still pays royalties for those plays you buy. So a decision to fix your numbers can end up a smart investment. The royalties you can get can cover a part of the price for plays, or even the full price. That’s nuts!