With streaming changing the music landscape, Spotify is looking to reward artists for their numbers with the Spotify Awards.
For years, fans have complained about the award shows “getting them wrong” and a lack of consumer engagement. In 2020, however, fans may finally feel heard with Spotify announcing their first official award ceremony.
“Spotify is changing the game with our first awards show—one based entirely on user-generated data. That’s right: your streaming choices—whether hip-hop or rock, reggaeton, banda, or cumbia—matter,” wrote Spotify.
While music streaming services have been pivotal in the last decade, Spotify is looking to one-up the competition by rewarding fans for their taste. Unlike traditional award ceremonies, nominees will be determined using user-generated data. This includes music sales, streaming numbers and user-engagement.
Held in Mexico City, Mexico, the ceremony will take place on March 5, 2020, with TNT cable subscribers treated to a live broadcast of the event. Not only is Mexico City the origin of the streaming giant, but it also houses the most Spotify subscribers – perfect for a ceremonial debut.
“So save the date and get streaming” wrote Spotify.
Can it compete?
With the Grammy’s facing backlash over the lack of diversity in recent times, it seems like fans are gearing up to steer away from traditional ceremonies. The AMA’s for instance drew in 6.7 million viewers, and while this is a colossal figure on it’s own, the ceremony attracted over 9 million viewers in 2017.
The 2019 Grammy’s recorded a drop in ratings from adults aged 18-49, dropping from a 5.9 to a 5.6 rating, as per Hollywood Reporter.
The New York Times also released a piece on the challenges the Grammy’s face when deciding nominees and winners. With a “board” deciding what acts and albums prevailed during the year, it is next to impossible to garner an accurate representation of the music landscape. And it seems like this is an issue Spotify may be able to avoid.
Basing the nominees off pure statistics eliminates the need for a “board” or officials to determine the outcome of the awards. In a way, this means that consumers will not have anyone to point fingers at apart from themselves, although, it can be argued that the essence of the ceremony weeds out many artists anyway.
The Spotify awards are clearly a numbers game and for many smaller artists, they may not be too good at this game right now. With artists like Drake and Ariana Grande dominating the charts, the awards not only rules out smaller artists, but may also become predictable. Regardless, the consumers have been heard and it’s on us to loop our favourite artists constantly if they want to contend for the Spotify awards.
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