Chartmetric and Base for Music have released a fan acquisition playbook that sets out how music teams can use several audience signals to guide marketing decisions. It addresses a recurring problem: strong streaming figures alone may give a misleading picture of demand.
Chartmetric’s analysis of high-profile tour cancellations found that large streaming audiences do not always translate into ticket sales. A Spotify listener playing an older hit and a fan repeatedly streaming a new album both contribute to listening figures, despite showing different levels of engagement.
Finding audiences with room to grow
The playbook recommends examining streaming, social engagement, playlist placement and audience data together. It advises teams to look for growth across several measures before increasing paid promotion, and to compare artists with similar audiences when identifying prospective fans.
Geography matters as well. A smaller market with accelerating growth may offer a stronger opportunity than an artist’s largest existing market. The playbook also points to fan information collected through pre-saves, newsletter signups and direct-to-fan platforms as an input for audience targeting and creative decisions.
Campaign channels and goals should reflect those signals. Short-form video may take priority where TikTok and Instagram engagement is strong. The playbook distinguishes campaigns intended to build on rising interest from retention efforts for artists whose streams are stable but engagement has levelled off.
Measuring and adjusting campaigns
Before launch, the playbook advises teams to define success and establish a baseline. It calls for reporting by territory, platform and audience segment, then narrowing an initial range of creative approaches to those gaining traction. Base for Music’s tracked music links are presented as a way to connect streams to the ads that generated them.
At each review point, teams can decide which campaign segments to expand, adjust or reduce. Chartmetric cautions against changing direction or budgets based on a single day of data.
The playbook also recommends comparing results with pre-campaign baselines and accounting for seasonality before treating a change as evidence of impact. Teams can then assess shifts in their audiences and their position relative to comparable artists when planning the next campaign.
Chartmetric provides cross-platform data on artist momentum, audience development and music trends. Base for Music connects campaign activity with audience, customer relationship management (CRM) and streaming data for measurement and attribution. The playbook is titled Identifying Growth Levers Through Data to Drive Fan Acquisition.
