The union between music and data analytics is not a passing trend; access to data in the music industry has increased significantly in the last two decades, and its impact continues to grow. While many artists recognize the value of this data, it’s close to impossible for an indie musician to gather all the statistics, charts, and data from social and streaming platforms and then analyze this information to determine the best way to position themselves in the market without the right tools.
Most platforms have built-in analytics, which should be your starting point if you are new to exploring music data. Yet an average artist has several profiles across various providers, hence the need to create a data aggregator – a tool that would synthesize and analyze all the data across streaming and social media platforms focusing on the music industry.
This is where Chartmetric came in with the ability to track data across over 20 different platforms, and yes, depending on what you’re after, it can be an incredible tool. Still, for an average indie musician, there are more viable options than the $140/month premium version.
So, if you wonder what other options are available, you’re not alone. I came across a discussion about Chartmetric alternatives on the Spotify Community forum; in 2018, a songwriter, Kim, asked:
Since 2016, when Chartmetric was launched, many new tools have been introduced; some have built a strong position in the market, while others have disappeared quickly.
What are the most effective music analytics tools available in 2024?
In this article, I’ll explore the seven best Chartmetric alternatives and their benefits for independent musicians. You will get an overview of what these services offer and how they can help you boost your music career.
Soundcharts
The founder of Soundcharts, David Weiszfeld, has over nine years of hands-on experience at Universal France and his own management and consulting firm, bSHARP, on his account. Over the years, he came to understand the need for data analytics in the music industry; hence, Soundcharts arose as an internal system to provide insights for bSHARP clients that later evolved into the outside world.
Soundcharts, alongside Chartmetrics, is one of the top market intelligence tools used by music professionals, labels, and artists to discover new music, track artists’ performances, and make sense of insights from various sources.
The platform offers in-depth analysis; it will track your performance on all social media channels (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) and provide graphs to show growth over a given period of time or daily fluctuations, as well as audience demographics. It also provides radio airplay monitoring to track your spins in real-time from over 1,900 radio stations in 76 countries, playlist exposure across Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube, and Deezer, plus detailed Spotify and Apple services analytics. A neat feature – Soundcharts includes Press Mentions by monitoring major digital outlets for artist coverage.
The pro plan, which at $129 per month is just slightly cheaper than Chartmetric’s premium version, gives you access to artists’ benchmarks, CVS exports, and market notifications.
Price:
The price starts from $10/month for one artist. You can also “unlock” new artists using artist’s credits. A few weeks ago, the founder of Soundcharts announced a free version is also available, which could be useful if you want to evaluate if the platform works for you.
The ten artists’ plan costs $49/month, and the unlimited Pro plan is $129/month.
Pros:
- A comprehensive solution, providing in-depth insights across various platforms.
- Free plan available (28 days of historical data available).
Cons:
- The depth of analytics may vary depending on the country where you are based.
- Advanced features (A&R, chart alerts) are only available on the premium plan.
- Expensive if you want to use it for more than one artist.
Viberate
I’m personally very excited about Viberate; it provides professional and comprehensive music analytics at a great value for money, all in a user-friendly and visually appealing package, making it a worthwhile addition to the scene.
Viberate Analytics gives you a detailed insight into charts and stats on a bunch of social and streaming platforms, radio stations, festivals, and live venues. As an artist, you can get insights into your audience demographics and geolocation, track performance, and playlist placements, amongst others. Adaptive UI allows you to prioritize the most relevant tabs. On top of that, you can compare any two artists or tracks by various artists.
It’s worth noting that the company behind Viberate Analytics has just launched Viberate for Artists, the platform “for musicians who want to remain independent or are looking for a launchpad to a record deal,” which has already created a buzz in the industry. On top of a wide array of tools for musicians, it includes stats from major platforms (Spotify, YouTube), playlist data, and audience insights to help you monitor your performance.
Price:
Both Viberate Analytics and Viberate for Artists have Premium and Lite (free) versions.
Viberate Analytics Premium costs $19.99/month (Viberate made a bold business decision to slash the price from $129/month).
Viberate for Artists at $39/year (yep, that’s right) offers distribution, pitching tools, advancing, a free one-pager, and booking tools on top of the streaming and social platforms analytics.
Pros:
- Affordable advanced analytics tool.
- Even more affordable Artist Suite, including reduced (but still worth it) analytics.
- Emphasis on live events and artist management makes it an accessible tool for small labels, producers, and artists alike.
- Customizable artist page.
- Easily understandable charts and visual representation of data.
Cons:
- While focusing on live events, it provides less broad analytics of social and streaming platforms compared with Chartmetric.
Spot On Track
Spot On Track is a valid middle-ground solution if you want a compromise between valuable data and affordability; it started by offering insights into Spotify and Apple Music stats and charts, and over the years, it introduced other data sources (Deezer, Shazam, TikTok, Instagram, and Radio stations).
This one of the software solutions by Studioweby gives you access to almost complete data, including current and peak chart positions, insights from over 9 million playlists, and releases across platforms. It stands out by offering daily email digest and PDF reports that can also include your company’s branding.
Price:
Analytics Plan costs $29.99 monthly, with an extra cost for radio data ($24.99/song).
They are planning to launch the Discovery Plan, which will include an A&R Discovery tool.
Pros:
- Access to detailed data across various platforms on the Analytics plan.
- Custom dashboard and ability to create detailed PDF reports.
- Daily email updates (optional).
Cons:
- Doesn’t offer a budget-friendly artist plan.
- No free plan.
- Radio data is only available as an add-on.
Spotify for Artists
This list wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include Spotify for Artists, a base for any artist trying to take their music to the next level. With over 356 million monthly active users, getting your music on Spotify is a no-brainer to get exposure and reach potential fans, enabling you to build a following without needing a record deal or a large marketing budget.
The analytics include data on your audience, streams, and performance on the platform, plus demographic information and playlist placement insights that give a complete overview of how your music is performing and help you make informed decisions. The data for new releases is updated every few seconds for the first seven days, and after that, it continues to be updated daily (at 8 pm UTC).
Spotify for Artists is an excellent tool with tons of useful features, so if you are planning to get your music on the platform, it should be your first choice before making a commitment to any music analytics platform.
Price:
Free service by Spotify for artists and their teams. It’s worth noting that you need to have your music already on Spotify or an upcoming release to claim a Spotify for Artist profile.
Pros:
- Free if you have your music on Spotify.
- Excellent Spoifty analytics tool with many useful features that you would have to pay for on other platforms.
Cons:
- Limited to Spotify users.
YouTube for Artists
As it’s easy to make out, introduced in 2020 as a separate service and included in YouTube Studio, YouTube Analytics for Artists works in the same way as Spotify for Artists, but on YouTube.
Analytics for Artists are available for all Official Artist Channels, and if you’re active on YouTube, there is absolutely no question that this tool is useful to get your hands on detailed insights regarding your audiences, engagement, and revenue tracking. By analyzing which content is performing well (Shorts, videos, live streaming, etc.), you can use it to optimize your YouTube strategy, attract the right audience, and gain more subscribers to your channel.
Price:
Free for Official Artist Channel users.
Pros:
- It’s free.
- Offers comprehensive data on all your YouTube performance.
Cons:
- The complex data can be overwhelming if you are new to data analysis.
- Limited to YouTube data.
artist.tools
Created by Aaron Whittington, artist.tools is fantastic if you want to find Spotify playlists to pitch your music. I would even say it’s the best tool for playlist analysis and management. Is it a Chartmetric alternative? It depends on what you need.
The platform provides a great deal of data on over 75,000 playlists and 6,000 artists, playlist contact details, and a bot identification tool, as well as playlist finder and access to insightful playlist, artist, track, and curator analytics, including historical data on stream growth and changes in popularity or playlist placements​​. It will notify you if your tracks are on botted playlists, which is extremely helpful in avoiding having your songs removed from Spotify.
Overall, artist.tools is a great platform and a bit under the radar, so if it’s the first time you’ve heard about it, go and check it out now.
Price:
artist.tools offers a free version and a paid plan at $15/month, making it an affordable alternative to more comprehensive solutions.
Pros:
- Affordable playlist analysis tool.
- Includes playlist curators’ contact details.
- Automatically identifies botted and scam playlists.
- It has a free version.
Cons:
- Limited to Spotify data.
Songstats
Launched in 2020 by the team behind 1001Tracklists led by its Chief Operating Officer, Oskar Eichler, Songstats is a relatively new addition to the music data space. The platform sees itself as ‘the world’s leading DJ tracklist database,’ and it’s orientated to attract EDM artists, producers, and labels.
Songstats offers desktop and mobile apps and, on top of the stats from the wide range of the usual suspects, it also includes Beatport, Traxsource, and 1001Tracklists as data sources.
It includes access to all analytics on both desktop and mobile versions, the ability to download PDF reports (only on the premium account), and collaboration tools for easy data sharing with your fellows.
Price:
Songstats has three plans, and each comes with a one-week trial:
- Artist (one account) at $11.99/month
- Record Label (one account) for $19.99/month
- Professional (full access to all artists and labels) at $99/month
It also offers custom Enterprise API access.
Pros:
- The ability to enable push notifications on the app when tracks are added to major playlists, reach new milestones, or chart in new territories and genres.
- A one-week trial.
Cons:
- No free plan.
- Doesn’t include live performance data.
- Downloadable reports only on Professional Plan.
Final Thoughts
I would be lying if I said you won’t get anywhere without using one of the advanced data analysis services. Yet, building your music career not supported by informed insights could mean running around in circles without understanding which direction to take.
We are living in the digital era, and the constant access to information can be overwhelming at times. Data, stats, charts, emails, and push notifications only make sense if you make good use of them and truly understand their meaning and the impact they could have on your career.
Where is the balance?
If you’re a newbie in the data analytics world, start using built-in analytics, a standard feature on all major platforms today. Dedicate some time to analyzing the information and understanding how to use it to boost your performance, and when you are ready to take the next step, benefit from free versions and trials provided by the data aggregating platforms before making a decision to subscribe.
Take it step by step and monitor your progress, but never let it hinder your creativity.
Good luck!
