Madonna's Spotify Progress

[Debord 723]

With a 'Classic 80s' playlist you're almost certainly going to get GJWHF on there, and maybe Time After Time or True Colours if it's a ballad one. With Madonna, you could have Holiday, Into The Groove, Like A Virgin, Material Girl, Like A Prayer, Express Yourself...you get the idea....and no-one would think 'oh why's this song here'. So it inevitably dilutes the numbers compared to having one or two signature songs that can get whacked absolutely everywhere.

[Alpha 1,892]

4 hours ago, Prayer said:

 

When she came back to Warner in 2021 they had to play catch up somehow but results improved vastly in these years. She's in a very healthy position at the moment.

Say thank you to Popular and SickKick! Those two tracks have been a God send to her streaming numbers with Popular pushing her into the top 50.

[Alpha 1,892]

1 hour ago, Debord said:

With a 'Classic 80s' playlist you're almost certainly going to get GJWHF on there, and maybe Time After Time or True Colours if it's a ballad one. With Madonna, you could have Holiday, Into The Groove, Like A Virgin, Material Girl, Like A Prayer, Express Yourself...you get the idea....and no-one would think 'oh why's this song here'. So it inevitably dilutes the numbers compared to having one or two signature songs that can get whacked absolutely everywhere.

What pisses me off the most is lately with all this 90s nostalgia among younger people there is a definite Madonna erasure as if she didnt exist in the 90s. Ray of Light alone really shaped the late 90s. Take a Bow also her biggest hit that decade too gets no mention. 

[Prayer 16,568]

1 minute ago, Alpha said:

Say thank you to Popular and SickKick! Those two tracks have been a God send to her streaming numbers with Popular pushing her into the top 50.

Among other things, including the old digital singles release strategy, which is now quite dead but was consistent and worked quite well during 2021 and the first months of 2022, when they were released as new to maximize reach and streams.

"Popular" and "Frozen" Sickick helped A LOT but she would have gone down again already if it only was for those two, yet she's still at 40M monthly listeners.

[Alpha 1,892]

4 minutes ago, Prayer said:

Among other things, including the old digital singles release strategy, which is now quite dead but was consistent and worked quite well during 2021 and the first months of 2022, when they were released as new to maximize reach and streams.

"Popular" and "Frozen" Sickick helped A LOT but she would have gone down again already if it only was for those two, yet she's still at 40M monthly listeners.

No my point is is that those songs helped ALOT and I'm sure people going to hear those songs led some down a rabbit hole so when fans were crying about the sickkick remix i thought they were stupid because it was only going to help her grow. Im sure many were curious about the original frozen and maybe went to the ROL album or Celebration etc...

[MikeyK 957]

15 hours ago, Debord said:

I can believe Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (and presumably Time After Time?) get big numbers cos they'll be on heaps and heaps of 80s playlists and they've been in loads of adverts, films etc. As others have said Madonna has so many iconic hits that it's more difficult to have that kinda focus on one or two.

GJWHF is pushed on way more than just 80s playlists though. They have it on just about every editorial playlist they can get it on. On Apple Music too. Virtually no other similar 80s hits (barring Michael and Whitney) have numbers remotely comparable. Culture Club’s numbers are way lower than M’s. And fwiw most general 80s playlists just go with Like A Virgin or Material Girl for Madonna.

12 hours ago, Prayer said:

Playlisting (payed by the label or not) surely played a big factor for Cindy. Spotify editorial playlists are kinda on the low side at the moment (still important and key but less than 5 years ago), but they were huge in the late 10s and early 20s.

Madonna biggest hits were with Warner but she wasn't with them during playlisting explosion, so maybe that's part of the reason why her biggest numbers are not that big as others. Why would Warner bother promoting her if she wasn't their artist anymore?

When she came back to Warner in 2021 they had to play catch up somehow but results improved vastly in these years. She's in a very healthy position at the moment.

This makes sense. It’s great though that M’s numbers are growing (and organically). Wild how it takes concerted, curated pushing (or a fluke situation like Kate Bush) to get an older artist’s classic songs big numbers like that. On the one hand it’s cool that M’s legacy is so extensive that there isn’t as obvious a focal point as some people. On the other hand there is a part of me that wishes Warner would whittle down the focus to like Material Girl and Like A Prayer just for the sake of numbers. We’ll see if LAP ends up getting a big boost from that upcoming movie. 

(And I can’t help but wonder why Cyndi Lauper got so much of a push in comparison to others 🙃)

[MikeyK 957]

7 hours ago, Alpha said:

What pisses me off the most is lately with all this 90s nostalgia among younger people there is a definite Madonna erasure as if she didnt exist in the 90s. Ray of Light alone really shaped the late 90s. Take a Bow also her biggest hit that decade too gets no mention. 

I’ve noticed this too, her presence on 90s related stuff is minimal. And if she is there it’s either Vogue or Frozen/Ray of Light. Nothing in between.

[Alpha 1,892]

3 hours ago, MikeyK said:

I’ve noticed this too, her presence on 90s related stuff is minimal. And if she is there it’s either Vogue or Frozen/Ray of Light. Nothing in between.

I would say Vogue because it gets lumped in with the 80s. Frozen the song wasn't remembered either unless lumped in with ROL the album. Just like the superbowl, people act as if she wasnt a part of it! The 90s were such a prolific decade for Madonna because she also literally had hit movies and hit albums and her longest #1 in the US.

[Debord 723]

7 hours ago, MikeyK said:

GJWHF is pushed on way more than just 80s playlists though. They have it on just about every editorial playlist they can get it on. On Apple Music too. Virtually no other similar 80s hits (barring Michael and Whitney) have numbers remotely comparable. Culture Club’s numbers are way lower than M’s. And fwiw most general 80s playlists just go with Like A Virgin or Material Girl for Madonna.

This makes sense. It’s great though that M’s numbers are growing (and organically). Wild how it takes concerted, curated pushing (or a fluke situation like Kate Bush) to get an older artist’s classic songs big numbers like that. On the one hand it’s cool that M’s legacy is so extensive that there isn’t as obvious a focal point as some people. On the other hand there is a part of me that wishes Warner would whittle down the focus to like Material Girl and Like A Prayer just for the sake of numbers. We’ll see if LAP ends up getting a big boost from that upcoming movie. 

(And I can’t help but wonder why Cyndi Lauper got so much of a push in comparison to others 🙃)

I know GJWHF isn't just 80s, that's why I mentioned all the films etc. It's more iconic than anything Culture Club have done. In terms of other 80s hits, Every Breath You Take by The Police has 1.9bn, Take On Me by A-Ha has 1.8bn, Africa by Toto has 1.7bn, Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics has 1.7bn...none of these artists have monthly listeners comparable to Madonna, they just have big songs on loads of playlists.

If I just type '1980s' into Spotify and have a quick look I'm seeing:
All-Out 80s - has Like A Prayer, Into The Groove, Borderline, Holiday, Papa Don't Preach
80s Hits - has Like A Virgin and Like A Prayer
80s Dance Hits - Into The Groove and Holiday
80s Workout - Holiday, Express Yourself and Like A Virgin.

In terms of the 90s:
All-Out 90s - Vogue, Deeper and Deeper, Ray of Light, Frozen, The Power of Good-bye
90s Pop - Take A Bow, Ray of Light, Vogue, Deeper and Deeper, Hanky Panky
90s Work-Out - Vogue

I really don't think there's some 'lack of push' and is what I'm saying - folk don't even think 'I'll listen to Cyndi Lauper', they just put on that one song they know, whereas with Madonna folk are listening to a heap of different songs.

[MikeyK 957]

Hang on, one thing I remembered on the subject of Madonna’s streaming numbers that’s pretty significant- she has the highest cumulative streaming total of any female artist that debuted in the 80s by a pretty decent margin. Her total # of streams across all titles is exponentially higher than Cyndi or Whitney or Celine Dion or Kate Bush (80s debuting-adjacent). I remembered reading that on twitter a while ago and went through and substantiated.

So while that silly article (and anyone else) tries to discredit her for not having one or two billion-streamed titles they’re missing the bigger picture. This validates what we’ve all more or less been arguing, that instead of one or two massive titles (and a dropoff) she has several titles w/healthy numbers that all add up to a greater total.

[MikeyK 957]

20 hours ago, Debord said:

I know GJWHF isn't just 80s, that's why I mentioned all the films etc. It's more iconic than anything Culture Club have done. In terms of other 80s hits, Every Breath You Take by The Police has 1.9bn, Take On Me by A-Ha has 1.8bn, Africa by Toto has 1.7bn, Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics has 1.7bn...none of these artists have monthly listeners comparable to Madonna, they just have big songs on loads of playlists.

If I just type '1980s' into Spotify and have a quick look I'm seeing:
All-Out 80s - has Like A Prayer, Into The Groove, Borderline, Holiday, Papa Don't Preach
80s Hits - has Like A Virgin and Like A Prayer
80s Dance Hits - Into The Groove and Holiday
80s Workout - Holiday, Express Yourself and Like A Virgin.

In terms of the 90s:
All-Out 90s - Vogue, Deeper and Deeper, Ray of Light, Frozen, The Power of Good-bye
90s Pop - Take A Bow, Ray of Light, Vogue, Deeper and Deeper, Hanky Panky
90s Work-Out - Vogue

I really don't think there's some 'lack of push' and is what I'm saying - folk don't even think 'I'll listen to Cyndi Lauper', they just put on that one song they know, whereas with Madonna folk are listening to a heap of different songs.

I stand corrected on M’s playlisting selections. On Apple Music (US), Like A Virgin and Material Girl seem to be the most commonly featured tracks on 80s playlists. Not to say others aren’t featured, especially on themed lists (soundtrack songs, ballads, songs of a certain year). Coincidentally they’re always hovering around her top 4 most streamed tracks there. Though like I said in my post above it’s worked out ok for M on Spotify in that she still has a much higher cumulative total than others thanks to decent numbers spread out over several tracks.

I still stand by what I said about some artists benefitting from label intervention more than others though. In their relatively short existence they have a pretty open history of letting labels “influence” what gets preferential treatment.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/record-labels-can-now-pay-spotify-to-promote-artists-on-the-platform-via-pop-up-music-for-you-alerts/
 

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/spotify-is-letting-record-labels-influence-personalized-recommendations-so-long-as-they-pay-for-it-in-royalties/
 

https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2547&context=faculty-articles

It’s true all those artists you mentioned are experiencing a sort of one hit wonder success w/their tracks w/big numbers, but there are still other comparable ones that don’t seem to do as well. I’d argue Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon are *absolutely* as iconic as either of those Lauper songs, but their numbers lag far behind. Even Soft Cell’s Tainted Love, arguably one of the most well known songs of the 80s, gets decent numbers nowhere near the rest. Prince & Duran Duran’s surprisingly just ok numbers.

Sometimes high numbers are organic. Sometimes they’re fluke situations (Africa). Sometimes labels give them a push. 

[MikeyK 957]

Playlisting!

https://x.com/MadonnaSpotify/status/1794772006220845243

https://x.com/MadonnaSpotify/status/1794790368640483695

https://x.com/MadonnaSpotify/status/1794800670324990141

I wonder if her people finally decided to make some effort lol.

Also her numbers in Bulgaria and Saudi Arabia suddenly went wayyyy up. A bunch of terminally online swifties are crying foul and claiming “streaming farms” (like TS doesn’t use such tactics).

*Edit sorry Idk why I can’t get the tweets to actually show in this post.

[itzjak 168]

Is this correct? Spotify México says #85 In the world. In Madonna ukmix Say it's #200 In the world, thre are two different list? I don't understand

 

[Prayer 16,568]

6 hours ago, itzjak said:

Is this correct? Spotify México says #85 In the world. In Madonna ukmix Say it's #200 In the world, thre are two different list? I don't understand

 

She's currently #85 overall (worldwide), with 39,5M monthly listeners.

Always check her official Spotify profile for that particular stat.

[Prayer 16,568]

Let's update her numbers...

- All Time Top 50 updated (Official, not merged):

01. Popular (The Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna): 796M -> should reach the +800M (!!) mark next week

02. Material Girl ("Celebration"/Digital Single Version): 439M

03. Hung Up: 429M

04. La Isla Bonita: 383M

05. Like A Prayer ("Celebration" Version): 343M

06. 4 Minutes ("Celebration"/Edit Version): 314M

07. Like A Virgin ("Like A Virgin" Album Version): 282M

08. Vogue ("Celebration"/"Immaculate" Version): 229M

09. Frozen (Sickick Remix): 170M

10. Crazy For You: 134M

11. Papa Don't Preach: 131M

12. Into The Groove: 125M

13. Holiday ("Madonna" Digital Album Edit Version): 108M

14. Like A Prayer ("Like A Prayer" Album Version): 102M

15. Bitch I'm Madonna: 99M -> about to reach +100M

16. Frozen ("Ray Of Light" Album Version): 84M

17. Music: 82M

18. Holiday ("Celebration"/Original Album Version): 81M

19. Medellín: 71M

20. Sorry ("Confessions" Album Version): 65M

21. Me Against The Music (Britney Spears Feat. Madonna): 65M

22. Levitating (Dua Lipa Remix): 62M

23. Take A Bow: 59M

24. Live To Tell: 58M

25. American Pie: 56M

26. Material Girl ("Like A Virgin" Album Version): 54M

27. Ray Of Light ("Ray Of Light" Album Version): 53M

28. 4 Minutes ("Hard Candy" Album Version): 53M

29. Girl Gone Wild: 51M

30. True Blue: 51M

31. Like A Virgin ("Celebration"/"Immaculate" Version): 51M

32. The Power Of Good-Bye: 50M

33. Give It 2 Me: 48M

34. Faz Gostoso: 47M

35. Jump: 43M

36. Express Yourself ("Celebration" Version): 42M

37. Die Another Day: 42M

38. Borderline ("Celebration" Version): 40M

39. Celebration ("Celebration" Album Version): 39M

40. Ghosttown: 38M

41. Give Me All Your Luvin': 38M

42. Who's That Girl: 36M

43. Living For Love: 36M

44. Frozen ("Celebration" Extended Version): 35M

45. Don't Tell Me (Album Version): 33M

46. Open Your Heart ("Celebration" Version): 33M -> this version was merged before with the "Immaculate" version (they're the same), but not anymore no idea why!

47. Lucky Star ("Madonna" Album Version): 32M

48. Beautiful Stranger ("Celebration"/OST Album Version): 27M

49. Get Together: 27M

50. Vogue ("I'm Breathless" Album Edit): 26M

[BoyToyMark 681]

If they merged the actual Holiday album version onto the Madonna reissue it'll probably overtake The Immaculate Collection remix version.

[JustinTimes 966]

Good to see Madonna getting lots more followers on Spotify. She should be on 8 million soon, even though she should have way more.

[f78k 5,416]

 

[zephyr in the sky at night 240]

SHE DID IT!! 

80’s: Material Girl - 439M

90’s: Vogue - 229M

00’s: Hung Up - 429M

10’s: Bitch I’m Madonna - 100M

20’s: Popular - 796M

How fun! I wonder how many other artists have done this, or are close to it.

I hope the internet stans discuss it a bit, they’re always talking about everyone else’s streaming accomplishments 😂 5 decades of hits!

[Alpha 1,892]

43 minutes ago, zephyr in the sky at night said:

SHE DID IT!! 

80’s: Material Girl - 439M

90’s: Vogue - 229M

00’s: Hung Up - 429M

10’s: Bitch I’m Madonna - 100M

20’s: Popular - 796M

How fun! I wonder how many other artists have done this, or are close to it.

I hope the internet stans discuss it a bit, they’re always talking about everyone else’s streaming accomplishments 😂 5 decades of hits!

😭😭😭 Bitch should've been the lead single and we wouldn't have had that cape incident 😭😭😭 imagine the Jimmy Fallon performance but at the grammys with all the musical artists screaming into the mic BITCH IM MADONNA!

[zephyr in the sky at night 240]

https://x.com/chartdata/status/1798757908144119917?s=46&t=aLj-pk2OHzBHi0vu6k8A6g

[Prayer 16,568]

Update... with "Back Up To The Beat (Demo Version)" added, which I had been forgetting all this time  Mess.

- All Time Top 50 updated (Official, not merged):

01. Popular (The Weeknd, Playboi Carti & Madonna): 808M

02. Material Girl ("Celebration"/Digital Single Version): 442M

03. Hung Up: 431M

04. La Isla Bonita: 386M

05. Like A Prayer ("Celebration" Version): 346M

06. 4 Minutes ("Celebration"/Edit Version): 315M

07. Like A Virgin ("Like A Virgin" Album Version): 283M

08. Vogue ("Celebration"/"Immaculate" Version): 231M

09. Frozen (Sickick Remix): 170M

10. Crazy For You: 135M

11. Papa Don't Preach: 133M

12. Into The Groove: 126M

13. Holiday ("Madonna" Digital Album Edit Version): 108M

14. Like A Prayer ("Like A Prayer" Album Version): 103M

15. Bitch I'm Madonna: 100M

16. Frozen ("Ray Of Light" Album Version): 84M

17. Music: 82M

18. Holiday ("Celebration"/Original Album Version): 81M

19. Medellín: 71M

20. Sorry ("Confessions" Album Version): 66M

21. Me Against The Music (Britney Spears Feat. Madonna): 65M

22. Levitating (Dua Lipa Remix): 63M

23. Take A Bow: 59M

24. Live To Tell: 58M

25. American Pie: 56M

26. Material Girl ("Like A Virgin" Album Version): 54M

27. Ray Of Light ("Ray Of Light" Album Version): 54M

28. 4 Minutes ("Hard Candy" Album Version): 53M

29. Girl Gone Wild: 52M

30. True Blue: 51M

31. Like A Virgin ("Celebration"/"Immaculate" Version): 51M

32. The Power Of Good-Bye: 50M

33. Give It 2 Me: 48M

34. Faz Gostoso: 47M

35. Jump: 43M

36. Express Yourself ("Celebration" Version): 43M

37. Die Another Day: 42M

38. Borderline ("Celebration" Version): 41M

39. Celebration ("Celebration" Album Version): 39M

40. Ghosttown: 38M

41. Give Me All Your Luvin': 38M

42. Back That Up To The Beat (Demo Version): 37M

43. Who's That Girl: 36M

44. Living For Love: 36M

45. Frozen ("Celebration" Extended Version): 35M

46. Don't Tell Me (Album Version): 33M

47. Open Your Heart ("Celebration" Version): 33M

48. Lucky Star ("Madonna" Album Version): 32M

49. Beautiful Stranger ("Celebration"/OST Album Version): 27M

50. Get Together: 27M

[JustinTimes 966]

I wonder how long it will take for Popular to get 1 billion streams 

[Karma 3,087]

1 hour ago, JustinTimes said:

I wonder how long it will take for Popular to get 1 billion streams 

Approximately in 5 months (1,2 million daily streams at the moment).

On YouTube, La Isla Bonita will get there in February next year.

[juanandriu 12]

I made a playlist to push her 90's singles. It's time to get these songs to the 100M mark! You could have it on repeat on the background with low volume 😅

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5yLJjLwELZbFtcycvY7Nzs?si=rg6rDMROTzqnnwU74uGfAQ&pi=u-nNljrZ6kTOCL