Spotify with R — rilloraza

R Programming

Finding the Formula to Charting on Spotify

Personal Project
December 6, 2023

About Spotify

Spotify is a digital music streaming service that offers access to millions of songs, podcasts, and videos. Spotify boasts a library of over 70 million songs from a diverse range of record labels and media companies. Spotify also has a large number of playlists created by users and the Spotify algorithm.

The Business Task

What are the trends in the top 1000 songs of 2023?
How can these trends be applied to future songs?
How can these trends influence Spotify's marketing strategy?

Key Findings

BPM, Key, and mode have greater impacts on the performance of the song.

BPM

It's best not to slow down too much.

BPM between 90 and 120 is the best range.
Overall average BPM is 122
Top 100 average BPM is 121
Top 50 average BPM is 120
Top 10 average BPM is 117

Songs with high energy and danceability percentages tend to do better as well.

Overall average energy is 64%
Top 10 average energy is 59%
Overall average danceability is 67%
Top 10 average danceability is 69%

Key

The Key of C# is the most used key of best best-performing songs

Overall - 14%
Top 100 - 18%
Top 50 - 24%
Top 10 - 30%

Mode

Songs in Major tend to perform better

55% of songs overall are in Major
64% of the Top 100 are in Major
68% of the Top 50 are in Major
70% of the Top 10 are in Major

Other Interesting Trends

Playlists

Playlists may play a role in song popularity. There is a positive trend between the number of playlists a song is in vs. the number of streams.

Release Date

The release year of songs may play a role in its performance. It takes about 6 years for a song to reach Top 10. Typically, songs released in the current year do not chart at Top 100.

Only 19.5% of the Top 816 were released in the current year
There were 0 songs in the Top 100 released in the current year
44% of Top 816 were released in 2022
10% of Top 100 were released in 2017
16% of Top 50 were released in 2017
40% of Top 10 were released in 2016
30% of Top 10 were released in 2017

The released month of songs may also play role in its performance. January, May and September were popular months.

January and May are the most popular release months for the Top 816 with 13.7% and 14%, respectively
In the Top 100:
- 31% of songs were released in January
- 12% of songs were released in September
- 9% of songs were released in May
In the Top 50:
- 34% of songs were released in January
- 16% of songs were released in September
In the Top 10:
- 30% of songs were released in January
- 20% of songs were released in September
January: New year, new songs. Spotify users seek out new music.
May: Warmer days are around the corner, it's also the perfect time for tours and festivals to promote new music.
September: People are back to work or back to school and looking for new songs to concentrate while doing work.

Recommendations

Future Songs Recommendations

Songs that perform well have the following features:

BPM between 90 and 120
Higher energy and danceability percentage
Written in the key of C# and/or in a Major key
Released in January, May, and September

Marketing Recommendations

Encourage users to create more playlists
Create a seasonal tab to get users excited for new music
- In January, highlight new music
- In May, show upcoming festivals where users' favorite artists will be performing
- In September, highlight new music to fit the back-to-school/office and upcoming holiday vibes

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