Is “New Music Friday” worth it?
How many streams is a placement on “New Music Friday” really worth?
This Week On The Desk
How many streams is a placement on “New Music Friday” really worth? 📰
Signings ✍🏾 - Omar Apollo
Creative($) of the week 👩🏽🎨 - Ekeziel Lewis
Links 🔗
How many streams is a placement on “New Music Friday” really worth?
It’s a question you’d only know how to answer through time and experience on the playlist. Of course, where you’re placed in the playlist has an impact on how many streams (and subsequent engagement) you’ll see as a result.
On average, here’s how a placement on NMF breaks down:
Top 3rd: 150,000 to 200,000 streams
Middle 3rd: 75,000 to 100,000 streams
Bottom 3rd: 25,000 to 50,000 streams
First, it’s important to understand that these numbers represent seven days on the playlist. Every week, New Music Friday is refreshed and the previous weeks tracks are removed on Thursday night at 9:00 PM (PST). Typically, there are 100 tracks a week added to the playlist, but the number has fluctuated in the past with various editorial regime changes.
Currently, New Music Friday has 3,999,265 followers, which shakes out to strangely low (average) engagement rate of 2.0477%.
Many in the industry have quietly argued that “New Music Friday” is akin to being premiered on Billboard.com. Great for optics but doesn’t move the needle from a consumption and discovery perspective.
It’s not the prize many artists and teams think it is.
Privately, some managers argue that the chaotic and aimless curation inside of New Music Friday can actually hurt an artist’s chances to be syndicated across larger editorial playlists. New Music Friday, who’s skip rate is higher in comparison to other editorial playlists, can routinely return less than positive first week data to artist and marketing teams.
Bottom line: New Music Friday is a poor testing ground for new releases. It’s filled with listeners who are more apt to skip than not, and produces a strangely low engagement rate. Despite the facts, the madness of crowds dynamic around “New Music Friday” will persist.
Signings ✍🏾
Omar Apollo signs with Concord
Omar Apollo has signed a publishing deal with Concord.
Creative($) of the week 👩🏽🎨
Ezekiel Lewis - EVP, Head of A&R - Epic Records | Instagram
Links 🔗
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#WhoeverNeedsToHearThis
Art is dangerous, when it’s not, you don’t want it - Duke Ellington
