This Friday, Spotify will delete artist data that is over two years old across its Spotify for Artists analytics platform. Learn how you can keep hold of your artist data here.

PSA for any independent artists that want to keep hold of their Spotify analytics data: Spotify artist data over two years old plus the year-to-date will be deleted on Friday the 30th of June. Don’t panic, though. You can rescue yours before it’s gone.

If you’re an artist wondering why you’d be bothered about your historical artist data being deleted, here’s why. Looking over old analytics can be invaluable when planning your next presale campaign or determining how best to market your new release. Whether your goal is to generate the most streaming revenue or to reach a brand-new audience, clever marketing makes all the difference.

The fact that Spotify is clearing out data en masse, as well as eliminating analytics features it states are “low usage” – including Similar Artists and Compare To Other Artists – means that you might miss out on some helpful insights.

Why Is Spotify Artist Data Being Deleted?

Whilst no definitive reason has been given, it’s a safe guess to say that data storage space and costs have to do with Spotify’s decision to delete old data.

The digital service provider (DSP) has said that this clear-out will make way for “exciting new analytics features to Spotify for Artists.”

The new features that Spotify has hinted at include:

  • Custom date range filters on more pages
  • New engagement stats on your Songs page
  • New fan segmentation of your active audience
  • More historical data on your Audience engagement page
  • A new roster management view

These new features should make it easier for artists to pull more specific inferences from their analytics. As a result, it will hopefully be simpler for artists to thoughtfully target campaigns, identify which audience members need some encouragement, and much more.

3 Ways to Improve Release Campaigns with Analytics

Without looking at past data, or taking a moment to consider your audience more carefully, you risk shooting blindly into the dark with your next release campaign. This could mean you don’t get the amount of listens or downloads you were hoping for. Not only can this be a bummer in general, but it also means less revenue generated to fund your future projects.

Here are just a few ways getting familiar with your Spotify artist data can help improve your next release campaign.

Identify a Target Audience

By paying attention to stats like top-played tracks, playlist adds, listener age, gender, countries, cities and “Listeners also like”, you’ll be able to glean some valuable insights about your music and listeners.

An incredibly important thing to figure out is who your target audience is. This will help you understand how your music is received, and whether your efforts are ensuring it reaches the right people.

Please People with Playlists

The power of playlists is seriously not to be underestimated. Pick out your favourite tracks that you’ve created, and your top streamed ones, and put them in a playlist with popular artists you feel are similar. Give it a searchable and descriptive title, and put some effort into curating it and maintaining.

This is the kind of thing people enjoy listening to, and will help your music to be discovered by the right listeners.

Carry Out A/B Testing

The only way you can tell if a new approach is working is by comparing it to the old one. This is called A/B testing. Measure the results of one new marketing method, try another one, and then compare to see what worked best.

You could apply this to something like different artworks, or different versions of ads you run on social media. By looking at playlist adds, top-played tracks, and similar stats, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of what yields the best results.

How to Keep Your Spotify Artist Data

If you’re now thinking it might be a good idea to still have access to your historical Spotify artist data, there’s a way you can do just that. Your historical data will be available for download until the 30th of June 2023.

Once you’ve accessed your Spotify for Artists account, you’ll be able to download a CSV file. You can do this by looking for a downward arrow icon on song pages. You’ll have to do this on the web version, as it won’t be available on the mobile app.

Spotify has shared some more specifics about downloading your old artist data here.