Like everyone else, my inbox, social media feed, newspaper, newscast, and most conversations were overwhelmed with year-in-review stuff. The most interesting year end information I got came from two sources.
I distribute my recorded music through CDBaby. Links to the Club Dave Music album on this site link to my CD Baby store. I have music available on other platforms, like Apple Music, too, and CD Baby aggregates all the stream, download, and sales data into one dashboard. According to my dashboard, Club Dave tunes were streamed in 23 countries, some on some platforms I haven't even heard of. Digital sales of the album and singles totaled just over $50. That's fifty more than I thought I would ever make!
Spotify provides artists with a lot of data and helpful (sometimes) ideas for increasing their audience. Spotify was nice enough to let me know my music was streamed over 700 times on their platform in 2019.
I like using Spotify to release songs, because I can promote them on my Artist Page. I start with CD Baby, because they release the song to all streaming services everywhere! There are really a huge amount of apps, sites, and platforms to choose from.
All Streaming is Not the Same
I was a long-time Pandora and Rhapsody (now Napster) listener before Spotify. There a some platforms with really high definition streams, and a lot with not so great quality. As an artist, not all platforms pay the same, either.
Choosing the right streaming platform for your taste in music can be daunting. I was glad to come across this very well researched and insightful research from Consumers Advocate. If you want to know what services are out there and how they differ, it's definitely worth checking out and may change your mind about the way you listen to music.