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I've been keeping a close eye on a band I know's Spotify stats. They're a fascinating case study right now cos they are getting great coverage from BBC Introducing & have been played on Radio 2 and 6 Music, and received a glowing review in Mojo, all in the last few weeks
This is very real, legitimate acclaim and many artists would be deeply glad to be in their position. I thought it would be great to see what all this coverage was 'worth', purely in terms of Spotify numbers.
So far, they've gained about 200 monthly listeners, up from around 550 to 750. Which was kind of shocking to me. All this national coverage, solid and real acclaim, and only a 200 person bump from all that BBC coverage.
Obviously, success isn't purely about Spotify stats. There will be all kinds of great opportunities that they'll get because of this, and hopefully actual sales of their album etc. Word of mouth is very powerful.
But it made me think that perhaps 'breaking through' isn't what we think it is nowadays. And high profile plays on the BBC stations are perhaps not as transformational as we have previously believed. (Being in constant rotation is a different prospect, obviously).
I'm interested to hear from anyone else with an opinion on this and / or experience. Do you think, as a force for breaking new artists, the BBC's power has waned?
I should just go on record as saying this: I love BBC radio. BBC Introducing were very good to me here in Devon, back in 2016/17. Not interested in BBC bashing - just people's opinions on routes to 'success' in 2020.
