How To Understand Music Analytics: 5 Best Tools for Artists

Fortunately, there are numerous intuitive platforms that provide and centralise all your powerful analytics across DSPs, social media, and radio. Here are a few of our favourites that can help you maximise your music's reach and fully understand your audience.

The Best Music Analytics Tools

There are multiple data analytics platforms out there, each offering unique benefits depending on what you're looking for. If you're not sure where to start, you won't go far wrong with these options.

Ditto Music App

Perfect for all independent artists and labels wanting to manage their music on the move, the Ditto Music app lets you track and monitor your music across all platforms - viewing real-time stats from Spotify, Apple Music and more - as well as withdrawing earnings straight to your bank with just a couple of clicks.

Start keeping tabs on your music and download the Ditto Music app now.

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Songstats

As an artist or collaborator, Songstats is an essential music analytics tool that you need to be using. With an extremely accessible user interface, making it easy to understand what’s really happening with your music, Songstats' mobile app also sends push notifications whenever your tracks hit a new playlist, chart, or milestone.

If you’ve just reached 100,000 Spotify streams, been added to an Apple Music editorial playlist, or if David Guetta has just played your track live at Tomorrowland, you’ll know immediately. Capitalise on these successes and create more momentum by sharing on social media with Songstats' sleek-looking custom artworks.

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Spotify for Artists

‍Spotify for Artists gives musicians and their teams real-time access to performance data for their tracks, playlists, and audience demographics. Artists can see where their listeners are located, how they discover music, and what playlists are driving streams.

It’s also where you can pitch new releases to editorial teams, customise your artist profile, and monitor fan engagement, making it a valuable tool for building and managing your presence on the world’s biggest streaming platform.

Read more on how to claim your Spotify for Artists account.

Chartmetric

‍Chartmetric is another powerful analytics platform that tracks data across streaming services, social media, and charts to provide a 360-degree view of an artist’s digital performance.

The tool is especially useful for comparing artists, analysing playlist placements, and understanding trends across platforms like Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Many managers, labels, and marketers use Chartmetric to identify growth opportunities, measure campaign impact, and discover emerging talent.

Soundcharts

‍Soundcharts offers real-time monitoring of radio airplay, social media stats, chart positions, and playlist inclusions - all in one dashboard. With its global scope and daily updates, it’s a favorite among music professionals looking to track media exposure, benchmark performance, and scout market trends.

Soundcharts also includes alerts and automated reports, helping teams stay informed and react quickly to spikes in activity or new coverage.

How to use music analytics tools

Once you’ve chosen your platforms and have started getting to grips with all of the different dashboards, what exactly do you need to be looking out for?

No matter which tools you choose to use, there are multiple key data points worth monitoring.

Tip: Every data point creates an actionable opportunity.

Your DSP performance

There’s no doubt that streaming is the primary way music is consumed nowadays, so it's vital you pay attention to your streaming stats. Beyond the simple streaming, monthly and follower counts, there are plenty of valuable metrics worth tracking to help you build a successful strategy. Two key ones are:

Spotify Popularity Metric is a numerical figure of how the Spotify algorithm views you. The higher it is, the more the algorithm will push you into Editorial & Personalised playlists, ultimately resulting in more streams and exposure. Take note of what increases your popularity to learn how you can sway the algorithm in your favour.

Playlists are critical in today’s streaming landscape for both music discovery and sustained listening, + the right playlist can boost your numbers exponentially in a very short amount of time. Look out for Playlist Reach, Type (Algorithmic, Editorial, User-generated), Followers, Position and Duration to understand which playlists are the most influential for you.

If your song performs well on a playlist, connect and expand the relationship with the curator - it can go a long way in securing future placements and keeping your song in a strong slot.

Social media buzz

Social media is where you engage with fans, where listeners become fans and where fans amplify your reach. Fans: the key to a sustainable career!

Platforms like Songstats provide useful fan insights including Followers, Likes, Top Reels, Video Views, Shares and Supporting Creators. These metrics help you find what piques interest and engagement, not just on your posts, but amongst user-generated content, as well as creators and influencers.

Take the screenshot from Songstats' dashboard below as an example. There’s been steady Instagram growth and engagement, but then a big spike. You NEED to know why, because that’s what’s worked. You can dig in deep through your Instagram analytics to find the source - was it a collab, trending audio, or a fan edit going viral?

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Tip: If an influencer or a large channel shares your music, know about it and capitalise on it. You can reach out to them to expand your relationship for future support.

Radio plays

Radio play is another great gauge for success. If your tunes are getting your music played on radio, you’re doing something right, and you can use tools to find out what that is. Radio data typically includes Country & City, Station Name, Last Play Timestamp and the Total Number of Plays.

With Songstats, you can cross-reference with other data points to see what’s potentially caused the radio station to pick it up. For example, if you got added to a major Italian Spotify playlist and you notice an increase in radio play in Italy, that suggests a strong correlation between playlist & radio and a successful marketing strategy for future reference. Take note of the radio station, too for plugging further down the line. 

Remember, consistent radio play can create a lucrative income stream too!

Understand your audience

Understanding who and where your fans are is imperative. These are the people who will support your growth, attend your shows and provide you with a sustainable career... so get to know them!

Audience data will vary across different sources, but ultimately it’s going to provide insight into which countries and cities your listeners are based in, and how often they’re listening. Simple, but SO powerful. You can harness these analytics to make data-backed decisions concerning touring, ad campaigns and other marketing efforts.

Songstats also lets you compare audience data across different sources to see what platforms work best for you in certain territories.

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Share your wins

Showcasing your successes, no matter how small or large, is an extremely important method for attracting new listeners, fans, artists, managers, booking agents, labels, publishers etc etc.

As with anything, if they see you’re succeeding, they’ll want in.

This guest article comes from the team over at Songstats. Start using the platform to access your real-time music data and connecting effectively with your fans.

Ditto Pro artists can save 20% on a Songstats plan through Ditto Perks. Head to your Perks dashboard now to unlock your discount!

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