Metal Bands Compared by Spotify Monthly Listeners, April 2021 Rankings
Every month we take a look at Spotify’s ‘monthly listeners’ counts for several hundred metal bands and compare them side by side to gauge their relative popularity at any given moment. For more on why we’re doing this column and the methodology behind it, read this.
The numbers for April are in, and 218 of the 302 artists tracked saw increases in listenership month over month from March as the streaming industry continues to grow. A report we published last month showed that 83% of the $12 billion in overall revenue generated by recorded music in the U.S. in 2020 came from streaming.
Some of the biggest gainers in the metal world over the past month included:
- Dokken (20.53%)
- Attila (26.35%)
- Northlane (24.44%)
- Veil of Maya (35.88%)
- Born of Osiris (32.58%)
- Insomnium (35.48%)
- Entombed (65.13%)
- Darkest Hour (39.98%)
- Inter Arma (25.03%)
Artists who saw the biggest drops:
- Vola (-22.27%)
- Cult of Luna (-37.42%)
- Humanity’s Last Breath (-21.29%)
- Gatecreeper (-20.08%)
These rankings, it must be stated, are not comprehensive: the bands included on our list were chosen manually, and it is absolutely the case that many bands aren’t included (please email [email protected] if you’d like to see them added next month). For that reason, we haven’t numbered these rankings: to do so would disingenuously give the appearance this is a comprehensive list, which it is not.
You can view the most recent chart numbers, along with the entire history of these charts, in the embed below or here.
