Russ took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his concerns about Spotify’s display of monthly listener counts, arguing that the metric promotes misleading comparisons and distorts perceptions of an artist’s actual fanbase.
The conversation began with a tweet where Russ broke down how monthly listener numbers are calculated. “Monthly listeners is essentially monthly impressions. It’s not ‘how many people listen to you and are fans,’” he wrote. “Someone could’ve had a playlist on shuffle and your song came on—and then they skip it. They would still be counted as a monthly listener. Stop using that metric to try to decipher how many fans people have. It’s literally just impressions lol.”
He went on to explain that Spotify only requires 30 seconds of playtime for a listener to be counted, even if the song was skipped immediately afterward. “If you have a playlist on shuffle and skip a song after 30 seconds, you’re technically a listener of that artist—even though you didn’t seek their music out or continue listening,” he added.
Russ then zeroed in on the broader implications of the metric. “It’s a catalyst for unhealthy comparisons. It creates misleading metrics like ‘monthly listeners’ and incentivizes people to cheat so they can inflate the perception of popularity.”
As a solution, he suggested platforms consider hiding these stats to shift focus back to the music. “Hiding the numbers would reduce the pressure to compete on inauthentic metrics and encourage a focus on the music itself,” he wrote. “Look at Apple Music… There are zero convos about how music is performing on there or if streams are fake… because you don’t know!! LMAO—as it should be.”
His comments sparked debate online. One user pushed back, writing, “We don’t hide athletes’ stats. Artists need to make better music and have better marketing.”
Russ responded simply: “Artists aren’t athletes. Hope this helps.”
Source: X
