Access to data is king. Artists want to know how their music is being discovered, who’s listening, where, how many have streamed their release, and what else their fans are into, among other things. Spotify’s app for artists aims to answer these questions.   Data like this is crucial for artists, who today compete for fan attention and acclaim on number of streams, not album sales. And on Spotify, half of users discover music by way of playlists or the radio, the company has said before. So if a new release drops but isn’t picking up steam, artists will know this information immediately, then can act accordingly – getting their tracks on the right Spotify playlists, or getting other artists to feature their music on their own profiles, for instance.   “Artists are always looking to understand did this next record I put out bring me to a new level of fandom, or did this new sound change the audience makeup?,” says Lennon. “Has the gender makeup of my audience changed? Has their age changed? Or even, maybe the countries or cities?…this is something artists have told us is really critical for them.” These demographic details can also help artists when they’re promoting their music outside Spotify – such as on Facebook by way of social ads – or for planning tours. Data on an artist’s most devout listeners is also used today with Spotify’s email targeting project, Fans First, which lets artists reach out to top fans with special offers – like presale concert tickets, for example. These campaigns are said outperform those from traditional email marketers, who expect only a quarter of recipients to open their emails. Spotify, meanwhile, has said that its email open rate is 40 percent, and clickthrough rate is 17 percent.