How Spotify Pushes Your Favorite Artists to Favor Quantity Over Quality

In June, pop artist Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, “Brat.” A few days later, she released a second version with three more songs, cheekily titled “Brat and it’s the same but there’s three more songs so it’s not.” This move sparked speculation that it was a dig at Taylor Swift, whose album rereleases have drawn criticism from some who see them as an attempt to remain atop the charts. In reality, Charli XCX’s strategy reflects a broader trend among big artists: rolling out multiple iterations of albums and songs to grab attention and appease algorithms on crowded platforms like Spotify and TikTok.

“Everybody’s playing a streaming game,” said Nima Nasseri, a former A&R lead at Universal Music Group and current manager of music producer and artist Hit-Boy.

In today’s streaming era, more content is better, and the biggest stars in pop are fully embracing the constant album-release cycle, as well as nearly never-ending albums. Country artist Morgan Wallen’s 2023 album “One Thing at a Time” has 36 tracks. In March, Beyoncé released 27 songs for “Cowboy Carter.” In April, Swift gave her fans two hours to digest her 16-track album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” before releasing an additional 15 songs in an anthology edition just hours later. Music executive Nathan Hubbard described this onslaught as a “hostage situation.”

Swift has since released over 30 different iterations of “Tortured Poets” through remixes, vinyl editions, cassettes, and first-draft phone memos. In May, Billie Eilish released nine vinyl editions, four CDs, and various sped-up and slowed-down versions of songs from her album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.”

“It’s a very momentum-driven market,” said Ben Klein, cofounder at the record label and music-marketing firm Hundred Days. “When an artist has momentum, you want to really capitalize on that by putting out as much product as possible.”

While long albums can feel overwhelming, especially since most TikTok-era listeners rarely listen to full songs, they can delight superfans who enjoy analyzing lyrics and buying limited-edition vinyls. “Small changes to the format or capsuled editions allow artists to satisfy their rabid fan bases,” said David O’Connor, vice president of artist and business development at Live Nation Entertainment. For megastars, the real money lies in catering to their core audience.

These trends highlight how tech platforms like Spotify and TikTok significantly shape today’s music creation and consumption. No artist, no matter their size, can ignore the algorithm.

Not long ago, if you wanted to hear a song and it wasn’t on the radio, you had to go to a store and buy a full album. For decades, the record industry controlled music distribution, keeping record sales growing at a healthy rate, peaking in the US at around $15 billion in 1999. But Napster’s arrival in 1999 brought illegal music downloads into the mainstream. In 2003, Apple’s iTunes music store started selling individual songs for about a dollar, returning some revenue to rights holders but diminishing the album’s role as the music gatekeeper.

“Steve Jobs radically remapped the music industry,” said Robert Fink, a professor of musicology and chair of the music-industry program at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music. “He arguably saved the record business by creating a store where people would pay $0.99 for a song instead of zero. But he also reinstated the singles format.”

The album faced another challenge with the rise of playlists on streaming services like Spotify. In the TikTok era of music discovery, the most meme-able 15 seconds of a song often matter more than the full track, much less a full album. Some artists even admit to thinking about TikTokable moments during the songwriting process. Social media’s sound-bite culture has influenced music as it has politics and news.

“Most of my fans aren’t looking for an album,” said Charlie Green, an artist and YouTuber performing under the name CG5. “In today’s music industry, it’s crucial to see how your singles perform and then release an album if they do well.”

Taylor Lindsey, a senior vice president of A&R at Sony Music Nashville, said, “It’s a bit of the Wild West regarding why we release tracks on some artists and albums on others. Much of it depends on artist preference and where they are in their careers. However, with 100,000 tracks uploaded to streaming platforms daily, there’s a sense of ‘You need more.'”

For some artists, albums remain useful tools for marketing, streaming economics, and serving their most loyal fans. More tracks on an album can help it break through. “The more songs on an album, the more opportunities for editorial and user playlists and higher first-week sales,” said Brian Zisook, head of artist and label services and executive vice president of global operations at Audiomack.

“There’s just fewer reasons not to put more songs on a record,” said Audrey Benoualid, a music lawyer at Myman Greenspan who has worked with artists like Ariana Grande and Tate McRae. “Streaming 30 songs instead of 10 makes a significant difference in charting and revenue.”

Writing many quality songs for an album is challenging. Some artists are cautious about letting social media strategies or streaming incentives interfere with the creative process.

Performers, whether indie artists or pop stars, understand that digital virality is fleeting, and many listeners may only hear their music once. Building an audience of superfans is essential for their long-term careers. This is where albums can excel.

“Our core fans, like those buying meet-and-greet tickets for Judah & the Lion shows, love records,” said Judah Akers, a singer and guitarist in Judah & the Lion, which released a 19-track album, “The Process,” in May.

Superfans are the listeners most likely to buy concert tickets, stream music repeatedly on Apple Music, and purchase physical records to listen to or frame. The resurgence in vinyl sales as a fan collectible in recent years reflects this trend. US revenue from vinyl records, CDs, and other physical formats grew to $1.91 billion last year, a 10% increase from 2022, according to RIAA data. Entertainment data firm Luminate found that the top 10 best-selling albums of 2024 averaged seven vinyl releases, 13 CDs, and two cassettes each.

“The album as a format is both dying and living its best life,” said Marie Clausen, managing director at the record label Ninja Tune. “With music discovery driven by TikTok, shorts, and reels, it’s crucial to offer real-life touchpoints where fans can hold a record.”

Like their pop counterparts, Akers’ band plans to release an extended deluxe version of “The Process” with five additional songs later this year. He hopes fans will guess how those added tracks fit into the album’s broader storyline, which deals with experiences of grief.

“A 24-song record is like giving someone a full-course meal and then free desserts,” Akers said. “It could be too much. But we want to keep pointing our fans back to what’s important to us.”

With no physical limits, a modern album can be whatever an artist wants it to be, even if its nebulous shape makes it a moving target for critics.

“What defines an album is entirely up to the artist,” said Nathan Hubbard. “Constraints can breed creativity, but removing them has allowed artists to create on their terms and define what an album is for them.”

Source: Business Insider