Understand How to Read and Use Your Music Data and Insights
Yes, we get it…data as an artist can be overwhelming at the best of times. Not just being able to read the numbers, but to use your data to inform your next marketing decision. Understanding your data is the key to unlocking your success. It reduces the guesswork and removes uncertainty if done right.
This guide is designed to simplify the process for independent artists, helping you interpret your data and leverage it to achieve your music career goals on the un:hurd platform.
Understanding Your Fanbase
Our platform provides you with an easy view on your combined fanbase size on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X, as well as on your streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.
Action: Use these visuals to grasp your overall audience reach and growth, and keep track of it increasing or decreasing. If it’s increasing, your marketing efforts are clearly working! If it’s decreasing, dive into the individual platforms and build a plan to reverse this.
Interpreting Social Media Data
Followers & Engagement:
Track your social media followers and engagement rates, such as likes, comments, and views, to gauge the effectiveness of your content.
Action: When you run an ad or post on socials, check how this impacts your followers and engagement! Was the engagement better or worse than your last post? This can help you understand what content your fans like the most!
Interest & Brand Affinity:
This data tells you what brands your social media audience like and what their interests are.
Action: Discover potential brand deals and shape your content strategy by analysing your audience's interests and brand affiliations.
Example: Based on the artist’s affinities above, they could look to collab with a pizza place for a merch giveaway around release day. They might also want to think about posting BTS style/fashion related content as their audience has an interest in ‘Clothes, Shoes, Handbags & Accessories’.
Streaming Platform Insights
Listeners vs. Followers:
Understand the difference between your listener and follower growth on Spotify.
Action: Keep an eye on what activities are driving growth on each metric. For example, your TikTok promo might be driving a lot of new listeners, but not followers. Re-engage these new listeners by teasing new music, or an alternative version, to convert them into long-term fans. Social media ads can help ensure you reach them.
Spotify Popularity Score & Fan Conversion:
Assess your presence on Spotify through the popularity score versus your Fan Conversion Rate.
- Spotify Popularity Index: This metric reflects how often your music is streamed. A higher score indicates greater popularity and can influence your visibility on Spotify. It's calculated based on recent stream counts, with more weight given to newer streams.
- Fan Conversion Rate: This measures how effectively you convert casual listeners into dedicated fans. It considers factors like how many listeners save your tracks, follow your profile, or add your music to their playlists. A high conversion rate indicates that your music is resonating with listeners and building a loyal fanbase.
Playlist Data:
You can also see the number of Playlists you’ve landed on over time versus the potential reach of those (the number of followers across those playlists you are on). Examine the count and reach of playlists featuring your music.
Action: Run a playlist campaign on un:hurd and track the growth in playlist count and reach. This should also impact your Spotify popularity score as you bring in new listeners.
Demographics & Geography:
Analyse demographic data, such as age and gender, as well as geographic insights, to understand who your audience is and where they're located.
Action: Book a gig in one of the top locations that your audience is based.
Using Benchmark Insights
Our benchmark tool provides you with a real-time graph to compare your performance against artists of similar size, similar stage and genre, across:
- Spotify Followers & Listeners
- TikTok, Instagram & YouTube Followers
You can check this graph at any time to determine if you're out performing or underperforming relative to peers.
Action: Start a growth campaign to either keep momentum going, or to improve a dip!
By using this as a guide to read and use your data to take action, you’ll be able to create more effective release campaigns that have a bigger impact on your growth. While we know data isn’t very sexy and fun, embrace it, and let it guide you to success.
Ready to unlock the power of your music data?
Head back to the un:hurd app and start exploring your data insights today!
Not an un:hurd user yet?
Join thousands of independent artists who are using un:hurd to streamline their music marketing and maximise their impact. Sign up today!
