Listeners are potentially double counted within Spotify for Artists' "listening now" metric

[billycosmo]

I have a Spotify for Artists account for one of my bands and I've been curious about the "listening now" function that ostensibly shows how many unique users are listening to our songs in real time.

Occasionally I will play through my band's EP and I notice that while I'm doing so, the amount "listening now" will fluctuate between 1 and 4 (it even has gotten as high as 6). When I'm not listening to it, the number is pretty consistently between 0 and 1. I would be delighted if 6 people were actually listening to my music at the same time as me, but I worry that the way Spotify calculates people "listening now" may be double or triple counting listeners.

The "listening now" stat is obviously not in real time and I figure is delayed by a few minutes. If I listen to 3 of my band's (rather short) songs in that timeframe where Spotify compiles data from the previous few minutes, would that count as "3 people listening now"? Does Spotify actually check the ID of the listener to determine how many unique users are listening to a certain artist? I would love to know how this is actually calculated. I would be happy if 6 people were actually simultaneously listening to my music, but I have my doubts that that's the case.

Thanks!

[Billy-J]

Hey @billycosmo, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I'd recommend getting in touch with the Spotify for Artist's team here. They'll take a look and do their best to help.

Have a nice day!