To succeed as a creative in any discipline nowadays, it’s crucial to maximize your online and offline presence, with more emphasis on the online side of things, especially if you are in for an international career. With several streaming and social platforms available to support your creativity as an independent musician, managing your growth can be overwhelming, to say the least.
The amount of statistics and data accessible through marketing and promotional tools is almost infinite. Knowledge is the key to unlocking the potential of the tools available, but without experience and knowledge, one can easily get lost in the data jungle.
So how do you measure your progress, grow your following on multiple platforms simultaneously, enhance your performance, and stay in control of your career without giving up altogether during the process?
Here is where the music analytics tools come into play… but are they really worth it?
Today I’m analyzing two of the most popular tools available in the market, and I’ll give you a fair opinion on whether or not you should be spending your time (and money) on them.
An Introduction to Music Analytics Tools
For a while now, music analytics have been effective instruments for obtaining extensive knowledge about the success of artists’ music and current consumer habits. Music professionals have seen the value in big data to help them curate and boost artists’ online presence. Understanding and managing data is vital to the success of every A&R, but it has increasingly become an essential skill for indie artists.
It’s true that all streaming and social media platforms offer ways for users to track their performance. Spotify for Artists, Bandcamp, and Youtube already provide a pretty wide choice of stats and analytics to help artists manage their audience. If you want to learn more about the (free) service by Spotify for Artists, I wrote an article about it in January this year.
However, most musicians use more than one platform to promote their music. This means you will need to view all the data separately, compare it, and incorporate it into your overall strategy. That sounds like a lot of time spent on reading and combining data while you could be creating new music.
Technology again comes in handy, addressing the needs created by err technology. Music analytics tools combine data from various platforms and tools, giving you an extensive overview plus a personal analysis of your professional performance. Some of the data you can assess includes detailed information on your career, listeners, reviews, websites, streamings, downloads, similar artists, potential collaborations, and much more, and it’s all available in real time. It’s a lot to take in.
Chartmetric and Spot On Track have been on the market for a while and have built a reputation for themselves as forerunners of the industry. Do they live up to the reputation?
Chartmetric: The Brief
Chartmetric revolutionized the music industry by introducing a tool that uses data collection, cleaning, and visualization processes to give users access to out-and-out data in real-time, not only on more than 30 streaming and social media platforms but also on over 1,5 K radio stations worldwide.
Created in 2015 by Sung Cho, a South Korean engineer and computer scientist, Chartmetric was inspired by the global popularity of K-pop music – Cho’s interest in K-pop data prompted his desire to uncover trends within the industry. The platform, based in London, New York, and Silicon Valley, is run by some of the industry’s most seasoned players, along with former BMG executive Andreas Katsambas.
In 2021, Chartmetric launched the Make Music Equal initiative, which aims to promote transparency in identifying and addressing structural inequalities in all areas of the music industry.
Spot On Track: The Brief
Spot On Track enables you to monitor playlists and charts from Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer, as well as radio plays simultaneously. What makes it different from Spotify for Artists and similar analytic tools is that Spot On Track gives you access to data on millions of songs, playlists, and charts available online instead of analyzing only your own songs.
Launched in 2016, Spot On Track is the most successful project of the Belgium-based software company Studioweby. Julien Mahin, the man behind the business idea, combines his expertise in computer science with a passion for music. Their products also include a search engine for playlists accepting submissions and a handy playlist analyzer.
Chartmetric vs. Spot On Track: Service Level
Chartmetric is a powerful all-rounder and one of the most versatile analytics tools out there. It compiles data across various platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, YouTube, Instagram, radio stations, Wikipedia, and TikTok, amongst others, and combines it into sleek-looking charts, reports, and diagrams.
The first impression is that you are really getting the most comprehensive spectrum of data supported by the highest level of scientific precision. Some of the functions are so detailed that I wouldn’t have looked them up myself if I hadn’t seen them on the platform.
Let’s look into the details.
Chartmetric allows you to track albums, social platforms’ key performance indicators (KPIs), and chart performances across all their associated channels. On the centralized platform, users can categorize or filter playlists. The platform allows easy data exportation by generating custom CSV or PDF reports based on artists, tracks, and albums or compiling data into visual graphs.
Which functions are important for you as an artist?
- Performance Analysis for Streaming and Socials – it offers complex performance measures that enable you to track all interactions, including the number of listens, your position in the main ranking lists, new followers (including detailed demographics), comments, likes, and more.
- Artist comparison is quite self-explanatory; it allows you to compare how one artist is performing compared to others (warning: it could be damaging to one’s self-esteem).
- Track comparison is basically the same thing but for songs.
- Curator Analytics gives you access to a database of over 4 million playlist curators (No email contact details included. Chartmetric released an announcement just a few days ago in response to a growing number of user complaints.)
- Playlist Analytics offers anything you may want to know on 15+ million playlists and why you should or shouldn’t be in them.
- Radio Analytics, all the data you ever wanted on over 1.5 K radio stations worldwide.
Then there are more tools specifically designed for music labels, A&Rs, and managers, allowing them to find new artists based on similar features or genres, the number of monthly listeners, and traffic on the A&R (artists and repertoire) dashboard.
So the question you are probably asking yourself is – how can I use all this data to boost my career?
Tracking your performance on the platforms you choose is an obvious one. On top of that, you can identify and evaluate playlists to be included in (or the ones you are already on) and select the playlist curators worth your attention.
It’s also an excellent tool for finding artists and bands to collaborate with (search engine allows narrowing down results based on the genre and location). Breakthrough analytics is also an interesting one – you can gain insight into the direction of the music industry and determine how to position and promote yourself in order to remain competitive.
We have recently analyzed the platform’s performance, so if you want more tips on how to make the most of it, check out our Chartmetric review.
Let’s see how Spot On Track compares to this:
Spot On Track is considered one of the best analytics tools in the industry, and there is no doubt about it. They started off with more limited options than Chartmetric but have since introduced many new features and data sources. While Spot On Track was primarily a tool to track streaming services charts and playlists (and still is), they offer a more than satisfactory range of other metrics. What are these?
- Track analytics – all in one place, anything you may want to know about a track, including chart positions, playlists, and releases in each platform.
- Playlist and chart analytics (Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer) – include data on over 9 million playlists with daily updates worldwide.
- Radio station analytics – you get access to data from around 7 million radio stations worldwide (exactly 188 countries). Radio data is sold as an add-on.
- Social media performance analytics – their own daily TikTok and Shazam music charts and analytics for all TikTok songs. They also provide demographic data on your Instagram followers.
Spot On Track comes with a personal dashboard and personalized daily digest emails, allowing you to select information on any artist, playlist, and tracks you want to receive. Plus, you get customized PDF reports, which can be delivered automatically (you decide how often), and you can add the company logo too.
Chartmetric vs. Spot On Track: Price
Chartmetric offers three payment plans:
- The free plan gives you access to 28 days of historical database and primary data on artists, plus access to playlists and curators.
- Artist Plan – for $10/ month, currently comes with a 6-month free trial (!) and offers complete access to data on up to 3 subscribed artists ($5/month for second and third artist)
- Premium plan – $140/month and a 7-day trial, extras such as demographic insights, Playlist Journey, Neighboring Artists insights, and A&R Dashboard.
You can save up to 17% when paying yearly. The premium plan is not a bargain, but I cannot imagine why you would need it if you are not a manager or A&R professional. The 6-month free trial gives you enough time to understand if the artist’s plan works for you.
Spot On Track has basically one “Analytics” payment plan, which includes almost everything they currently offer for €29.99/month (or €24,99 if you pay yearly). You also get to try it for free for two weeks before you decide to purchase. Radio data is not included in the subscription plan, and it can be purchased as an add-on (only with an active subscription) for €24.99/song. For this price, they will track the song you selected for a year.
They are also introducing a new “Discovery” plan with the A&R Discovery tool, so I look forward to seeing if they can compete with Charmetric, which has already become a popular tool for A&Rs head-hunting new music talents.
Chartmetric Pros and cons
Pros
- A comprehensive offer of very detailed analytics and stats.
- Basic free plan.
- A 6-month trial period on the “Artist plan.”
Cons
- A lot of data can make identifying the most relevant information harder.
- Many advanced options are only available in the premium plan.
Spot On Track Pros and cons
Pros
- Access to almost complete data on basic “Analytics” plan
Cons
- No affordable artist plan.
- No free plan.
- Radio data is only accessible as an add-on.
Final verdict
Both Chartmetric and Spot On Track allow you to have a complete overview of your career and to track and analyze progress on multiple platforms simultaneously, making them stand out among the few tools that offer such comprehensive insights into the music industry.
But you already know that, so I’ll cut to the chase:
- I’d probably go with Chartmetric’s top tier if you want the most comprehensive feature set.
- I’d probably go with Spot On Track if you want a middle ground between good data and affordability.
- And I’d go with Chartmetric’s Artist Plan if you’re mostly concerned about cost.
But it’s up to you, obviously. Considering that it is virtually impossible to have a thriving music career without an online presence, and unless you are a data analyst, you will need some help navigating through the ever-changing matrix of data, using one of the analytics tools is a no-brainer.
Price-wise, Chartmetric offers a pretty awesome deal for independent artists, and although you won’t have access to some of the more advanced options, you’ll still get enough insight to support the growth of your career.
That said, if you want to use more precise analytics, Spot On Track offers almost complete access (without radio data) for less than one-fifth of Chartmetric’s premium plan charges.
Figuring out data and analytics is now more attractive and accessible than ever. Before you decide which plan and tool suits you better, I recommend you use these free trials (6 months with Chartmetric!), consider your career goals and how many of these options you will really make use of.
Good luck!
