Spotify might soon remove the “monthly listeners” number from artist profiles. This feature shows how many people listen to an artist every month.
Some users recently noticed that the number was missing from certain artist pages, including Playboi Carti’s profile. However, not all accounts are seeing this change yet, which suggests it may be part of a test.
The idea of removing public listener counts isn’t new. Rapper and producer Russ has been speaking about this issue for a while. He believes that showing these numbers creates unhealthy competition between artists. Russ explained that it makes people focus more on numbers than the actual music.
Russ compared Spotify to Apple Music, saying that Apple doesn’t show streaming numbers publicly, and as a result, fans talk more about the music itself instead of how many times it’s been played.
“It’s nobody’s business how the music is performing except the artist and their team,” Russ said. He added that public numbers often lead to fake streams and false hype around artists.
Recently, Russ shared more thoughts in a podcast interview. He argued that Spotify is showing the “business” side of the music industry to fans, making everything about numbers instead of songs. “Why should I know how many streams a Weeknd song got in 24 hours?” he asked. “It’s not my business.”
Spotify hasn’t officially announced this change yet, but many fans and artists are watching closely to see what happens next.
