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The Tea

• Quick Share to TikTok.

• TIDAL’s Cull.

• Biggest Tracks and Trends of 2024.

• Highlights from Spotify’s Q3 Earnings.

Quick Share to TikTok.

While TikTok Music didn’t make it in the streaming stratosphere (you might recall our coverage on TikTok Music closing its music streaming service) - they have been hard at work securing other partnerships.

Spotify has always been deeply invested in its platform's social aspect, so adding TikTok to the share options makes sense in terms of its business model and the features it already has.

Using it couldn’t be more simple. You tap ‘Share’ like usual, and you’ll notice two TikTok options. One sends the track via message and the other posts it to your TikTok either as a green screen or as an image. It's pretty cool for musicians looking for a quicker way to answer the question, ‘When will this be on Spotify?’.

This feature makes sense for music reviewers, lovers, management teams, and record labels. For content creators, it makes it much faster to have the music in the videos - rather than to create the video and then add the music afterward. Our TikTok content creator tested the feature and loved it.

We know that TikTok has a significant impact on Spotify streams. The platform has successfully made songs go viral in just a few hours. Here is the report from TikTok and Luminate: Music Impact Report.

This quick share button is definitely fun, but it could also be an excellent way for musicians to share their music faster and with a much bigger effect!

TIDAL’s Cull.

We’ve seen more than a couple of these from various streaming platforms in the last few years. And, for those who keep track, the one with Spotify involved a pretty significant staff cut. Numerous media outlets reported the TIDAL layoffs at the end of October.

Getting more specific, they are removing the product marketing and product management functions completely. But TIDAL isn’t alone in these huge cuts; the music and streaming industries are doing the same thing.

Universal Music Group, Downtown Music, BMG, SoundCloud, and Spotify have all experienced significant staff cuts in the last 24 months. The TIDAL cuts come as part of a larger set of cuts across multiple companies operated under Block - Jack Dorsey’s company.

When it comes to “right-sizing” a team, it often means mass layoffs focusing on and streamlining the core product(s). Foundational roles supporting TIDAL and the design team are the first to be reduced. In the coming weeks, this may extend to engineering “as we have more clarity around leadership going forward” said Jack.

According to an article in Fortune, two staff members who are "familiar with the plans” said another round is coming on December 3rd. But that plan may shift.

Biggest Tracks and Trends of 2024.

2024, so far, has gifted us with some incredible albums and some stand-out tracks. We’ve seen sensations like Sabrina Carpenter become global superstars almost overnight (thanks to TikTok and Gen Z social teams).

The UK’s Official Song of the Summer went to Sabrina Carpenter with Espresso, who enjoyed seven non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts. While Shaboozey has held that coveted Billboard Hot 100 top spot for an incredible 17 weeks with A Bar Song (Tipsy).

Dua Lipa made history just days ago as the only female to have two albums break 13 billion streams on Spotify.

This is what Dua’s meteoric rise looks like:

Country Music has dominated the singles and album charts this year. A Bar Songs (Tipsy), Beyoncé’s TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, Dasha’s Austin, and more have secured high positions in the charts.

As we reported just a few issues ago, Country Music has seen a huge surge in listeners. Great for the genre and undoubtedly great for artists like Post Malone, who released a country album this year. Country Music is well and truly back.

Here’s a look at the increase in on-demand audio streams of Country Music from 2018 until now.

Source: Luminate note: While on-demand streams make up most of the listens, there is an increase in both CD and Vinyl sales.

So what does KWORB say? Here are the top ten most streamed songs of 2024 on Spotify.

Who are the most streamed artists in 2024?

Note: These rankings are based on cumulative streaming data as of October 24, 2024, sourced from Statista. It makes for interesting reading, and the data goes some way to show while some songs and albums might trend and see significant streams, the top ten artists in any given year don’t change too much.

And, perhaps even more interesting are the most popular songs in the world.

So, our question is, what is your top song of 2024? You can let us know in the comments or head to our Instagram!

Highlights from Spotify’s Q3 Earnings.

We recently looked at Deezer’s Q3; in comparison, Spotify is a goliath. Holding over 30% of the music streaming market, the figures are usually phenomenal. And surprisingly, this is the first time they are “On Track to Achieve First Full Year of Profitability.”

Here are the quick figures:

• Monthly Active Users grew 11% Y/Y to 640 million.

• Subscribers increased 12% Y/Y to 252 million.

• Total Revenue was up 19% Y/Y to €4 billion.

• Gross Margin reached 31.1%.

• Operating Income improved to €454 million.

The report also covers some of their most exciting innovations and features:

• AI Playlist rolled out.

• Music Videos are now in 97 markets.

• daylist across more regions.

• Countdown Pages for artists.

• Over 9 million podcast listeners.

• AI DJ in Spanish, Livi was a huge hit.

• Audiobooks have rolled out to more regions.

👉️ Get all the data and details here: Spotify Q3 2024

As always, thanks for reading - catch you next week for more data, charts, and music.

Shout out to PlaylistPush, for hooking up playlist curators with over 25,000 artists and labels and FreeYourMusic for keeping our playlists synced.