How Big Artists Inflate Their Streaming Numbers (And What Matters Instead)

In January 2023, Miley Cyrus' single Flowers became the most-streamed song in a single week in Spotify history.

And anybody could break that record. Yes, anybody. Even my dog.

How? Let's start with some numbers.

Where the streams come from

When I looked at the stats, a big share of Miley's streams came from countries where English isn't the first language.

Why does that matter? One of the best ways to grow beyond organic reach is Meta ads and playlists. And when your goal is as many streams as possible, you want the cheapest cost per listener.

Ads cost a lot less in non-English-speaking countries than in countries like the US or the UK. That's why a lot of ad managers and playlist curators target them.

Want another example? When I checked Charlie Puth's Spotify stats, his top five countries for listeners were cheaper countries in Southeast Asia.

Surprised? Why would an artist as big as Charlie Puth target those countries?

The math behind a streaming record

Back to Miley, and how you could break her record.

At the very cheapest end, when you target cheaper countries, a listener from an ad can cost around 10 cents. So $1 brings about 10 listeners. (In the campaigns on my case studies page, each person who tapped the ad and landed on the song cost between 9 and 65 cents, so this is the bottom of that range.)

On average, one listener streams a song about 3.5 times. So $1 gets you around 35 streams.

How much would 100 million streams in one week cost? Around $2,857,142.

Money equals streams, and big record labels know this. I feel like that's why they put millions into ad campaigns that push the streaming numbers up and make their artists look BIG.

Social proof

What Miley and Charlie are using is called social proof.

As a playlist curator, if I see an artist with 100,000 monthly listeners, I'm far more likely to add their music than an artist with 1,000 monthly listeners, before I've even heard the song.

Why? Because the numbers show that people already like the music, and that's a powerful psychological trigger.

Playlists and ads can be part of your social proof. Big streaming numbers can make your music look successful and attract more fans.

But streams don't prove growth. Anybody can buy millions of streams if they have the money, and followers can be bought too.

Even going viral doesn't always mean growth. If you film yourself walking down the street in your underwear with your song in the background, the video will probably get a lot of attention. But those views won't turn into fans, only random people looking for your OnlyFans handle.

What matters: fans

Streams, followers and views are only numbers. Fans are what matter.

Here are five things that attract fans who stick around. Show them in your content, your lyrics and the way you talk to people, online and in person.

1. Your unfair advantage

Success comes from hard work and from using your strengths. That could be more money, a better education, a bigger network, or being in the right place at the right time. You already have an edge in something, so use it.

2. Creativity

Creativity means being more original than other musicians. Early on, people tell you to focus on quantity over quality. There's some truth in that, but if you only focus on quantity, you might win fans fast and lose them just as fast when they notice the quality isn't there.

3. Consistency

Consistency builds a loyal fanbase over time. Growth is often exponential. It might take five years to find your first 10 fans, and the next 990 could come the year after. A lot of musicians give up too soon, so be the one who doesn't.

4. Authenticity

People love honesty and they can smell fake from far away. Share your story, your process, your struggles and your life. Not everybody will connect with you, and that's okay. Let those people go and focus on the ones who stay.

5. A combination of skills

You're an artist, and music is only one of your tools. If you have other talents, use them to stand out.

• If you can act, act out your lyrics.
• If you can dance, make a dance routine for your song.
• If you make films, make incredible music videos.

The bottom line

If your goal is to make a living from music, build a fanbase of people who believe in you. Those fans buy your merch, come to your shows and invest in your career.

That's what labels, managers and Spotify editors look for, and inflated numbers from Indonesia won't fool them.

Is it harder to build a fanbase than to pay $50 for fake streams? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

If you're starting from zero, I wrote about how to find your first 1,000 fans.