This glossary is a compact, practical reference for Spotify for Artists. It sticks to the terms you actually see in the dashboard, what they mean in plain language, and how to use them when you are planning releases, ad campaigns, and label reports.
Core Spotify for Artists metrics
Monthly Listeners
The number of unique listeners who played your music at least once in the last 28 days, from any source. It measures reach, not depth. Treat Monthly Listeners as your headline audience number and watch how it moves around releases, tours, and big playlist moments.
Listeners
People who streamed your music in the specific date range you selected. It is similar to Monthly Listeners but tied to the time window in your chart. Use it to understand how many individuals a campaign actually reached.
Streams
A stream is counted when someone listens to a track for at least 30 seconds. One listener can create many streams. If streams rise but listeners stay flat, it usually means your existing fans are replaying songs instead of lots of new people arriving.
Stream to Listener Ratio
Total streams divided by total listeners for a track or time period. Higher ratios mean people are replaying your music rather than just sampling it once. It is a quick way to find songs that feel "sticky" even if they are not yet the biggest by raw streams.
Followers
People who tap Follow on your artist profile. Followers help new releases land in Release Radar and other personalized surfaces. Growing this number is how you build an owned audience on Spotify instead of relying only on algorithms and playlists.
Saves (Adds to Library)
When listeners save a track, EP, or album to their library or a special collection such as Liked Songs. Saves are one of the clearest signals that a song matters to a listener and often correlate with stronger algorithmic support over time.
Playlist Adds
When a track is added to a listener playlist. Playlist Adds plus Saves usually tell you whether a song is moving from casual attention to "part of my listening routine."
Intent Rate
Spotify’s term for how many listeners showed intent to listen again by saving or playlisting the track during a campaign. In Marquee and Showcase reporting, it appears as the percentage of converted listeners who saved or playlisted at least one track from the promoted release. In practice, this is the "who really cared enough to keep it" metric.
Starts
The number of times playback began, whether someone tapped play or it auto-played. A Start may not become a counted stream if the listener bails before 30 seconds. A big gap between Starts and Streams often points to weak intros, bad targeting, or the wrong track being pushed to the wrong audience.
Audience segments on Spotify
Spotify groups your listeners into segments based on behavior in the last 28 days and the past two years. This is where you see the difference between fans who seek you out and people who mostly hear you in background playlists.
Active Audience
Listeners who intentionally streamed your music from active sources (artist profile, albums, liked songs, or their own playlists) in the last 28 days. These listeners are choosing you on purpose, not just hearing you in autoplay or radio.
Super Listeners
The most engaged slice of your Active Audience. They stream you frequently and consistently in the last 28 days. They are the first people to invite to pre-saves, exclusive drops, vinyl, or VIP experiences.
Moderate Listeners
Active listeners who play you regularly but not obsessively. They are often one or two good touch points away from becoming Super Listeners, especially around new releases, tours, and well-targeted ads.
Light Listeners
Active listeners who only played you a small number of times in the last 28 days. Great candidates for gentle retargeting, "start here" playlists, and social content that focuses on your strongest songs.
Previously Active Audience
Listeners who intentionally streamed your music in the past two years but not in the last 28 days. They know who you are but have drifted away. Re-engagement campaigns here are usually more efficient than shouting at people who have never heard you.
Programmed Audience
Listeners who heard you only through programmed sources such as editorial playlists, algorithmic playlists, Radio, Autoplay, and various Mixes. Think of them as "cold but promising" listeners: the algorithm introduced you, but they have not yet taken the extra steps to become fans.
Sources and surfaces
Active Sources
Places where listeners pick you directly: your artist profile, albums and singles pages, search, liked songs, and user playlists. Growth here signals brand strength and fan loyalty.
Programmed Sources
Editorial and algorithmic placements such as Release Radar, Discover Weekly, Radio, Autoplay, Daily Mix, On Repeat, and other Mixes. These are Spotify choosing you on behalf of the listener based on taste and behavior.
Source of Streams
The breakdown in Spotify for Artists that shows where your streams came from: profile and catalog, playlists, search, radio, and other buckets. Use it to see whether growth came from your own efforts, from the algorithm, or from paid campaigns.
Playlist and recommendation types
Release Radar
A personalized playlist that updates weekly with new releases from artists a listener follows or plays, plus a few discovery picks. To give a song the best chance here, pitch the unreleased track in Spotify for Artists at least seven days before release and avoid stacking too many singles on the same day.
Discover Weekly
A 30-track playlist refreshed weekly with music chosen based on each listener’s taste profile and the behavior of similar listeners. Strong Discover Weekly performance usually means your music is connecting with the right adjacent audiences, not just your existing fans.
Daily Mix
Several personalized mixes that blend the listener’s favorites with recommendations, usually grouped by style or mood. If you show up here often, you likely have enough catalog for Spotify to treat you as part of someone’s "everyday listening."
Radio (Song, Artist, or Playlist Radio)
Stations generated automatically based on a seed track, artist, or playlist. Radio is a major place where Discovery Mode shows up, and it is often a steady long-tail source of streams long after release week.
Autoplay
When Spotify automatically continues with similar music after a chosen track, album, or playlist ends. Streams from Autoplay can be a sign that the algorithm thinks your track is a strong next step after something listeners already love.
Editorial Playlists
Playlists curated by Spotify’s editorial team such as Today’s Top Hits, RapCaviar, or key genre lists. You pitch unreleased tracks through Spotify for Artists, but placement is never guaranteed. Treat editorial as upside, not the core of your campaign.
User Playlists
Playlists created by listeners. Adds in high quality user playlists can drive reliable, long-tail listening and often outlast the shorter spikes from big editorial features.
Promotional tools and campaigns
Discovery Mode
A promotional setting where you tag priority songs so Spotify increases the chance of showing them in certain programmed contexts such as Radio and Autoplay. In exchange, a lower promotional royalty rate is applied to streams that come from those Discovery Mode placements. It is best used on songs that already show strong behavior such as saves, completion, and repeat listening.
Marquee
A full-screen sponsored recommendation that appears in the Spotify app to targeted listeners when you release new music. You set a budget and pay per person who sees the recommendation and chooses to listen. Use Marquee when you want a sharp, measurable push around a release window.
Showcase
A paid placement on the Home feed that highlights a priority release or catalog moment for selected audiences. It is useful for re-surfacing older tracks, anniversaries, or songs that pair with tour or merch pushes, not just brand new singles.
Canvas
A short looped vertical visual, usually 3 to 8 seconds, that plays on mobile while your song streams. Simple, bold loops tend to perform better than over-designed micro-music videos. Good Canvas creative often improves share rates and keeps listeners in the app longer.
Clips
Short vertical videos with captions that can appear on your profile and key surfaces. Use them for stories behind songs, calls to action, or quick performance moments that give people a reason to tap into the catalog.
Countdown Pages
Pre-release pages where fans can pre-save, follow updates, and receive reminders on release day. They help stack Release Radar, algorithmic interest, and social buzz into a single, focused first week instead of spreading attention thinly over time.
Analytics, engagement, and diagnostics
Audience tab
Shows you segments such as Active, Super, Moderate, Light, Programmed, and Previously Active, plus demographics and locations. It is where you sanity-check whether your efforts are attracting the fans you want or just random background listening.
Music or Songs tab
Performance by track or release: streams, listeners, saves, playlist adds, and source data. Use it to choose which tracks to push harder, which songs deserve extra content, and which ones are better left as deep cuts.
Geography and demographics
Country, city, age, and gender breakdowns for your listeners. This informs tour planning, ad targeting, release timing, and decisions such as which language or visuals to lead with in different markets.
Early Skips and Skip Rate
The share of Starts or Streams that end very early in the track. Consistently high early skips can signal that you are pitching the wrong song, misleading people with the wrong creative, or losing listeners with intros that take too long to get to the point.
Save Rate
Saves divided by listeners or by streams, depending on how you calculate it. A healthy Save Rate often predicts long-term performance better than a one-week spike in streams.
Playlist Position and Tenure
Where your track sits in a playlist and how long it stays there. Top rows usually capture more listening than bottom rows. A smaller playlist with a top slot can be worth more than a giant list where you sit at track 75 for a week.
Money, rights, and identifiers
Streamshare model
Spotify pays recording royalties from a shared revenue pool, not a fixed per-stream rate. Your share of that pool depends on your share of total streams in each market and tier. For label or management conversations, focus less on "what is the rate" and more on how to grow your share of listener attention.
Recording (master) royalties
Royalties owed to whoever controls the sound recording itself, often a label or distributor. Contracts decide how much of this lands with the artist, producer, or label. Make sure you understand recoupment, marketing deductions, and cross-collateralization before signing.
Publishing (songwriting) royalties
Royalties for the composition, paid to songwriters and publishers via PROs and mechanical agencies. These are separate from master royalties and are not directly managed inside Spotify for Artists.
Neighboring rights
Royalties in many countries for public performance of sound recordings, often collected by organizations such as PPL or SoundExchange. Eligibility rules vary, so it is worth confirming who is registering and collecting on your behalf.
ISRC
The International Standard Recording Code, a 12-character ID that uniquely identifies each sound recording. Spotify and other services use it to track plays and route recording royalties correctly.
ISWC
The International Standard Musical Work Code, used to identify the composition for publishing. It keeps credits and royalty flows aligned when multiple recordings or covers of the same song exist.
UPC or EAN
Release-level barcodes for singles, EPs, or albums. These sit above ISRCs and help labels, distributors, and stores manage catalog, reporting, and chart submissions.
URI, URL, and Spotify Code
Different ways to point at content on Spotify. URIs are used inside the Spotify platform, URLs work in browsers and socials, and Spotify Codes are scannable graphics you can put on posters, vinyl, or merch.
Helpful distinctions for strategy
Pitching vs placement You can pitch unreleased tracks in Spotify for Artists, but no tool guarantees playlist placement. Build campaigns that work even without editorial support.
Active vs programmed listening Active listening (profile, albums, user playlists) is behavior you can influence directly. Programmed listening (editorial and algorithmic) is a side effect of how much people care and how well the song fits similar artists.
Saves vs playlist adds Saves add you to a listener’s personal library. Playlist adds embed your track in their listening routines. Great songs usually earn both.
Followers vs Monthly Listeners Monthly Listeners measure short-term reach. Followers measure durable attention and long-term leverage for each new release.