Anatomy of an Artist: How We Built a Spotify Audience from Scratch (The Data)
Budding new music.
How does a new artist build a real audience from scratch on Spotify in 2025? It's a question surrounded by myths and theories. We believe in data.
Over the past two months, our record label R&D lab, JG BeatsLab, has been strategically releasing tracks from an experimental Amapiano project: The 112 Groove (T112G). This was not a one-week marketing blitz, but a slow-burn release schedule designed to build a following organically. As part of our Keystone Mission, we are now sharing the complete, unfiltered data to show how it's working.
After releasing four tracks over eight weeks, here is the cumulative snapshot from The 112 Groove's Spotify for Artists dashboard:
Total Streams: 6,065
Total Unique Listeners: 2,456
Streams-per-Listener Ratio: 2.47
Total Saves & Playlist Adds: 390
Listener-to-Save/Add Rate: 15.9%
Total New Followers: 93
Listener-to-Follower Rate: 3.8%
These totals tell a story of consistent growth and deep engagement. Let's break down the key indicators.
1. Listeners Are Actively Engaged A streams-per-listener ratio of nearly 2.5 is a strong opening metric, showing that new listeners do not just play one song and leave. But the more powerful signal is active engagement. With 390 combined saves and playlist adds, nearly 16% of all listeners have taken the crucial step of adding these tracks to their personal libraries. This tells Spotify's algorithm that the music has staying power and is worth recommending to more people.
2. We're Building a Real Fanbase Followers are the lifeblood of a growing artist project. A listener-to-follower conversion rate of 3.8% is a solid foundation for the future. It proves that a meaningful portion of the audience is invested enough to want notifications for future releases. This is how you convert passive listeners into an active, long-term fanbase.
This radical transparency is the core of our Keystone Mission. In nature, a keystone species is one that supports the health of its entire ecosystem. Our mission is to do the same for the modern music economy by providing transparent data and insights for both the artists who create value and the investors who support them.
This is the first in an ongoing series of data-driven case studies. We will continue to share our metrics and analyze the results as we experiment with new strategies.
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