From casual listeners to die-hards, every fan segment plays an important role in supporting an artist’s career, but one segment that’s particularly effective at moving the needle is Spotify super listeners.
These superfans stream the most, buy your merchandise, and attend all your shows, making them a worthy investment.
In this blog, you’ll learn how you can grow this segment through fan funnel analysis and tools within the Spotify for Artists dashboard.
What are Spotify super listeners?
Super listeners are your most engaged and loyal fans. They’ve actively streamed your music from intentional sources such as your artist profile, release pages, and saved libraries or more in the past 28 days.
What makes this fan segment valuable?
Super listeners support everything you do: On average, they make up just 2% of an artist’s monthly listeners but drive over 18% of monthly streams, account for 50% of an artist’s ticket sales from Spotify, and are 9 times more likely to share music with their network than other listeners. One super listener streams as much as 20 listeners in an artist’s programmed audience.
How can I see my Spotify super listeners?
The Spotify for Artists dashboard provides insights to monitor your super listener segment.
The “segments” tab of your Audience page in your dashboard breaks down your share of programmed, active, and previously active listeners. Clicking into your “active” segment, you can see your super listeners alongside moderate and light listeners.
Keeping an eye on how releases, promotions, tours, and other artist activity impacts your super listener count and activity can help you identify drivers. You need to know what activity activates your super listeners to effectively plan for growth in the future.
How do fans become super listeners?
The best way to understand how your fans become super listeners is through a fan funnel.
Your fan funnel provides a way to visualize your fan acquisition and retention at a high level, summing different channels and journeys.
On Spotify, fans progress from passive to active listeners as they graduate from algorithms feeding them your music to finding it and streaming it themselves.
A streaming funnel has three stages: growth, reactivation, and engagement. Each stage consists of a few fan types.
Growth stage
The growth stage consists of potential listeners and programmed listeners. Potential listeners are those who haven’t streamed your music anywhere in at least two years – but, based on their listening behavior, they’re likely to stream your music. Programmed listeners have only heard your music through programmed sources like editorial playlists in the past two years. So, both groups are newer to your sound.
Reactivation stage
At the reactivation stage, you have your previously active audience: fans who once streamed you intentionally but haven’t in the past 28 days. They might just need a nudge to dive back in.
Engagement stage
At the bottom of the funnel is your active audience — including light, moderate, and super listeners. They’re intentionally streaming your music in the past 28 days and coming back regularly, so they’re really fueling your career. Super listeners are the most engaged segment within your active audience.
While the funnel provides a linear structure to understand fan journeys, it’s important to note that your fan journeys can vary significantly.
You can make your fan funnel more meaningful and less abstract by analyzing real ways fans have discovered, remembered, and supported your music. Beginning with the funnel stages and fan types as a framework, apply what you know. Consider the following:
- What opportunities do fans have to discover your music and what’s working best?
- How are you retaining fans (keeping them up to date on your activity and driving engagement)
- What activities (releases, tours, merch drops, video posts, etc.) tend to impact your streaming activity?
- Who are your fan personas? What do you know about each fan segment from new fans to your most loyal
Once you have a more vivid fan funnel laid out, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses then optimize your channels to acquire, retain, and nurture your fanbase.
What tools can help grow my Spotify super listeners?
Staying active on Spotify is a great way to recruit superfans because avid listenership is baked into the platform. According to a recent study from eMarketer, US music fans spend over 32 hours per month listening to Spotify. Compare that to other streaming services, which see around 3.5 hours of activity per month. “More listening means more opportunities to grow a real, lasting fanbase,” Spotify says.
Spotify has some great tools you can use to grow your super listener segment.
Focus on three key stages of the fan journey:
- Attract New Listeners
Use tools like Discovery Mode and playlist pitching to reach potential fans through Spotify’s programmed sources. Once they’ve discovered your music, give them a reason to return and engage more deeply with your catalog. - Reactivate Lapsed Fans
Re-engage past listeners with targeted Marquee or Showcase campaigns. These tools focus on specific audience segments based on real streaming behavior, making them highly effective. In fact, listeners who see a Marquee or Showcase are twice as likely to become super listeners during the campaign. - Deepen Engagement
Keep fans involved by optimizing your Spotify profile with new music, merch, Clips, and tour dates, ensuring visibility in Spotify’s concert recommendations. A new release can drive an average 18% boost in super listeners. Tools like the Countdown Page help convert pre-savers into loyal fans — over one-third of listeners who pre-save and stream in the first week become super listeners.
Spotify is also improving campaign insights, offering visuals and personalized data that show how fans move from casual to super listeners, helping you tailor your strategy for maximum growth.
How to Get Started
CD Baby can help you get your music on Spotify. We also provide you with the educational resources to get the most out of the platform, from analytics guides to promotion tips.