Fan-organized streaming campaigns drive millions of streams and break chart records, but streaming platforms capture none of this coordinated activity because it happens on third-party platforms.
Promoting streams, following fan-led initiatives
Role
Lead UX Researcher &
UX Designer
Timeline
3 Weeks
Timeline
User Interviews
Literature Reviews
Behavioral Analysis
THE OPPORTUNITY
It drives $5+ billion in annual music engagement across platforms like Stationhead, Discord, and Twitter. These coordinated campaigns consistently outperform traditional label promotion - yet music streaming platforms capture none of the community value that fans create around their content. While Spotify hosts the streams, the organizing, momentum, and collective experiences happen elsewhere.
Fan-organized streaming campaigns drive massive engagement, but Spotify captures none of this coordinated activity.
It drives $5+ billion in annual music engagement across platforms like Stationhead, Discord, and Twitter. These coordinated campaigns consistently outperform traditional label promotion - yet music streaming platforms capture none of the community value that fans create around their content. While Spotify hosts the streams, the organizing, momentum, and collective experiences happen elsewhere.
The BTS Case Study: When Fans Take Control
In May 2021, BTS fans noticed their song "Butter" was losing momentum on charts. Without any label coordination, fan account @btschartdata organized an impromptu streaming party on Stationhead with just 2 hours notice. The response was unprecedented.
5.4 MILLION
Streams generated in one session
400 THOUSAND
Fans joined with 2 hours prior notice
NUMBER 1
BUTTER hit #1 on Billboard Hot 100
This single fan-organized event helped Stationhead grow from 125K to 1M monthly users, while Spotify didn't reportedly receive much of this coordinated engagement despite hosting the actual streams. This information came from both Billboard articles and user interviews.
RESEARCHING THIS BEHAVIOR
A mixed-methods approach to answering these questions.
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How do fans currently coordinate streaming campaigns across platforms?
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What motivates fans to participate in organized streaming versus individual listening?
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Where do friction points exist in the current fan organizing workflow?
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What role could Spotify play in amplifying organic fan behavior?
Literature Review
Duration: 1 week
Focus: Fan community research, music platform engagement studies, streaming behavior analysis
Sources: Academic papers on fandom, music industry reports, platform usage studies
Participant Recruitment
Target: Active fan community members who had participated in streaming campaigns
Recruitment: Twitter, Discord, Reddit fan communities
Criteria: Participated in ≥2 streaming campaigns, active in fan community for ≥6 months
Semi-Structured Interview
Participants: 9 fans across BTS, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga communities
Length: 45-60 minutes each
Format: Remote video calls with screen sharing for platform walkthroughs
Semi-Structured Interview
During the interview, I asked participants to walk me through their current process of finding and joining fan-led streaming activity. I asked about their motivation to join & the pain points/frustration they experience with the workflow.
Here's how I analyzed the interviews.
TRANSCRIPTIONS
All interviews transcribed and anonymized. Key quotes highlighted for later reference.
AFFINITY MAPPING
152 individual insights clustered into 9 themes, then consolidated into 4 key patterns.
BEHAVIORAL JOURNAL
Mapped complete fan coordination journey from announcement to post-campaign celebration.
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION
Cross-referenced pain points with Spotify's existing capabilities to identify intervention opportunities.
Participant Demographics
total participants
age range
different fandoms
avg. campaigns participated in
avg. years in fandom
THE FINDINGS
1
Labels are NOT the ones driving campaigns.
The most successful streaming campaigns are initiated by dedicated fan accounts like @btschartdata (1.8M followers) rather than official artist teams. These fan leaders have built trust and credibility within their communities that labels struggle to replicate.
2
Fandom infrastructure matters.
BTS ARMY can mobilize 400K fans in 2 hours because they have established communication networks, clear hierarchies, and proven coordination systems. Most fandoms lack this infrastructure and rely on scattered social media posts that reach limited audiences.
3
Social media platforms are fragmented, which creates friction.
Successful campaigns require Twitter for announcements (reach), Discord for planning (organization), Stationhead for coordination (real-time), and Spotify for streaming (consumption). Each platform switch loses participants - one interview participant noted "we lost like 30% of people just trying to get everyone on Stationhead."
4
Being a part of the community is just as valuable as supporting the artist.
Participants consistently described the feeling of hitting milestones together. Chart achievements, streaming records, and trending hashtags create shared experiences that individual listening cannot replicate. As one Taylor Swift fan explained: "It's not just about supporting Taylor, it's about being part of a community of other people. I've met my best friends through this."
More stories from interviews.
The Taylor Swift Case Study
Swifties coordinated mass streaming for the release of the All Too Well (10-min) version, aiming to break chart records
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54.4 million US streams in debut week
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Became longest song to hit #1 on Billboard Hot 100
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Broke 49-year record previously held by "American Pie"
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Fan coordination across Twitter, Discord, and streaming platforms
The Lady Gaga Case Study
Little Monsters organized streaming parties via @gagadaily Stationhead station for album anniversary celebration
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Coordinated album listening sessions on Stationhead
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Fan accounts promoted participation across social media
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Part of broader fan organizing trend mentioned in Billboard coverage
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Note: Specific streaming numbers not publicly available
THE SOLUTION
Using data to track stream surges, users receive real-time notifications when coordinated streaming is happening.
The language & tone here is to encourage Spotify users to join the "party." Utilizing the data from the 'Follow' feature already existing on Spotify, it can send users personalized notifications.
Milestone trackers can be used to motivate fans to stream a certain song. This can track collective fan goals using visuals.
Using 'Add to Queue' ensures that the current actions of the user are not interrupted, while ensuring that the user will stream the song.
Artist profiles can be used to promote streaming and community. Users can see how many fans are listening to the artist in real-time.
Users found this to be an entertaining stat. One noted that seeing active listeners on smaller artists would make the experience less isolating.
THE BUSINESS IMPACT
If Spotify captured just 50% of similar fan campaigns, this represents millions in additional streaming revenue annually. For smaller fandoms that don't have the structure of larger fandoms, Spotify can bring the data and structure to them. They can track numbers & create chart predictions. This will drive traffic and users to Spotify.
We can increase revenue from label partnerships.
Labels pay $50K-$500K for playlist placement. Fan milestone campaigns offer similar chart impact - creating a new premium advertising tier for labels wanting to amplify organic momentum.
Higher engagement can lead to higher conversion of premium users.
Engaged fans are 3x more likely to convert to Premium. Features like early notifications and exclusive milestone rewards create clear premium value propositions for high-engagement users.
This provides fans with data - driving more streaming & achievements.
Understanding which fans organize campaigns gives Spotify valuable insights for artist development, tour planning, and marketing - data currently captured by Twitter and Discord.
REFLECTING
What could come next?
User Research
Usability testing the entire flow.
A/B testing variations of visuals and popups.
Label Stakeholder Interviews
Beta Testing
Partner with 3-5 established fan communities to prototype notification features and gather feedback on timing, messaging, and participation rates.
Launch limited pilot with 2-3 major artists during new releases to measure impact on streaming numbers, engagement metrics, and user satisfaction compared to control groups.
What I learned.
This project challenged my assumptions about fan behavior and business opportunities. Instead of trying to create new fan engagement tools, I discovered the power of amplifying behavior that already exists. The research revealed that the most successful fan campaigns are entirely organic - they just need better infrastructure to scale. This taught me that sometimes the best product solutions come from removing friction rather than adding features.