Wrong stats? Spotify or DistroKid?

[adrmac49]

Hi there,

I'm an artist here on Spotify. Now, my stats are something about 2,000 streams yesterday, but Distrokid shows me slightly above 4,000 streams for yesterday. Is there something wrong with the stats of Spotify?

What happened here?

As you can see, I have on some days, completely different stats on DistroKid AND Spotify. One Day Spotify shows me for e.g. 2019-01-13 about 5100 streams, but DistroKid shows me for the same day 3741 streams. The difference are 1359 streams.

What's wrong here? Is this normal? Which source should I trust now?

thanks for help

[PTbeats]

Is your distrokid set to only see Spotify streams? 

If not chances are those are your streams from other platforms (ie. Apple Music, dezzer, tidal, etc) that is the difference in streams. It usually takes 3 months to see banking/ stat info from other streaming services unlike Spotify. 

I would trust your artists.spotify numbers they come in daily lol 

hope this helps!! 

[adrmac49]

yes, only for spotify. I didn't know, that DistroKid can show me Apple stats. 

Where can I see, where the streamrates are coming from?

Thanks 🙂

[adrmac49]

but I don't think that distrokid shows me other sources than spotify. Spotify shows me for one day over 5100 streams and DistroKid shows me 3741 streams. This means, it should be MIN 5100, because Distrokid should add the additional streams from other sources, not only spotify.

[PTbeats]

They are just estimates but they should be real numbers when your sales/ royalty report comes out. It says that on the distro site but I’m no expert lol and did you pay for streams? Sometimes they don’t calculate properly I’ve had it happen

[peterbeau]

I believe royalties are only payed after a minimum streaming time per song (i.e. 30sec). Maybe Spotify counts every time a song is started (even 5sec streaming), and Distrokid might only show you the streams that have reached the minimum streaming time?
Just an idea...

[_The_Crow_]

Spotify stats are inconsistent - so I would not rely on them. For example under music - playlists you can see the number of streams you get from your own playlists. You also get shown the number of your overall streams in the same time period. So you can compute the fraction of streams that come from your own playlists. Spotify also shows the stream fraction you get from your own playlist under 'audience', but they don't match (for me). There are other things that seem inconsistent.

[rapoet]

Hey Adrmac49, did you ever get an answer?

I know it's not apple stats, because the section that distrokid shows spotify stats is SEPARATE from stats of other platforms (as you said).

1. When you compare stats for total spotify plays the number on distrokid may be a lot higher,

2. But individual songs on distrokid site vs spotify for artists should look exactly the same. Try selecting the individual songs on both sites and it should be exactly the same,

3. Make sure you subtract one day from the spotify artists to the distrokid for each song. Because it takes a day to transfer from Spotify to distrokid.

For example:
Distrokid Nov 3 stats = Spotify Nov 3 stats
(for each individual song)

That still doesn't explain the difference in overall stats though. Some theories are
1. If another artist released a song and it featured you, maybe DK counts those plays, but Spotify doesn't because it's not YOUR release.

2. Maybe if Spotify gets too many plays (a maximum quota) from certain users, it reports the plays to DK, but then Spotify caps off the plays it counts from some users, and lowers the amount.

I'm curious what else it could be, and what is the difference between "estimates" and extra paid plays.

[Maruhny]

It is SPOTIFY, we have tested this... 5 of us streamed a Song 300 times Spotify counted 1500, then Spotify reset the streams to 987 and at least paid 671 streams.... So they con you me and all the other artists when ever they can....

Distrokid stats are correct displayed,  therefore they freez your account if you upload too many Songs....and blame the shops for not accepting further songs by artist via Distrokid 

So the rules: they all just want your money and never will pay your work.... We now decided for our 15 + artists not to upload further music to Spotify and pleased our fans not to pay the monthly spotify fee.... And quit their premium account... 

[delaypilot]

I knew it! Those bastards! Thanks for checking this out, I think i'll switch to bandcamp. I hear a lot of good things about bandcamp.