Spotify Streaming Report 2024 Reveals: 50 Million Songs With No Listeners – 175 Million Under 1000 Streams
The Dark Side of Streaming Congestion
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Spotify Streaming Report 2024 Reveals: 50 Million Songs With No Listeners - 175 Million Under 1000 Streams · Source: Ted Hsu / Alamy Stock Foto
The world of Spotify streaming and other music platforms is increasingly dominated by numbers and statistics that reveal a profound structural problem: the incredible amount of tracks uploaded, most of which are hardly ever listened to. According to Luminate’s annual report, a total of 202 million individual tracks were available on audio streaming services in 2024. Of these, 93.2 million tracks were played no more than ten times in a year. This figure illustrates an unprecedented saturation of platforms, exacerbated by easy access to production tools and the ability to upload directly. But what does the future hold?
Spotify Streaming 2024: The Truth Behind the Numbers
The ever-growing flood of new music is further fuelled by cheap or free tools and AI-powered production software. On average, around 99,000 new tracks will still be uploaded per day in 2024, a slight decrease from 103,500 uploads per day (!) the year before. Nevertheless, the problem remains: around 87 per cent of all tracks on streaming platforms receive fewer than 1,000 plays per year. At the same time, according to Chartmetric, only a small percentage of artists reach a significant number of listeners. Only 5.31 per cent of Spotify artists had more than 1,000 monthly listeners, while 86 per cent had fewer than ten.
This development has led to an intense debate within the music industry. Some are calling for songs that do not exceed a certain number of listeners to be removed from the royalty pool. Spotify already introduced this practice at the beginning of 2024, excluding tracks that are played less than 1,000 times a year from distribution. However, critics argue that these tracks still account for a significant proportion of total streams when taken together. On the other hand, it shows that the huge amount of content on the platforms not only reduces the visibility of individual works, but also dilutes the overall value of the offering.
Spotify Streaming: The Invisible Side of the Music Business
Oversaturation is not only a challenge for artists, but also for platforms like Spotify Streaming itself. The question is how streaming services can deal with the growing number of unheard or barely noticed tracks without losing their appeal and diversity. At the same time, the figures show that many artists are barely reaching an audience, despite the opportunity to make their music available worldwide. This reality reflects the imbalance between supply and demand and calls into question the sustainability of the current streaming model.
While the number of tracks available continues to grow, listener attention remains limited. This underscores the need to find new ways to highlight quality and relevance within the endless supply. At a time when music production and distribution are easier than ever, the challenge of navigating between creative abundance and economic reality is growing. Spotify Streaming, and the industry as a whole, must find a balance that works for both artists and listeners.
Read More About Spotify Streaming
- Chartmetric’s 2024 Year in Music report
- 2024 report from Luminate
- More about Spotify Streaming
- More news about Spotify Streaming
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2 responses to “Spotify Streaming Report 2024 Reveals: 50 Million Songs With No Listeners – 175 Million Under 1000 Streams”
Spotify is the musical equivalent of your refrigerator door. Just because your kid’s crayon doodles are up there it doesn’t mean they’re going to be an artist…
Once upon a time the industry had people who were paid to be the gatekeepers to widespread distribution. They listened to the crap so we didn’t have to. And production and distribution were too expensive for most people to make their own albums/CD’s.
Sure, some good stuff got lost in the shuffle. But I’d be willing to bet not as much as hiding the good stuff in 93M tracks of crap that only gets streamed by the ‘artist’s’ relatives.
We don’t have time to listen to it all. The industry needs gatekeepers.
Good article. Sobering numbers.
And throw AI music into the mix and music creation and consumption as we know it will forever be changed.
Playing live and selling physical product might be an answer. Along with creative marketing strategies.