After Grammys, It's the Classics That Dominate on Spotify

Macklemore was right. Kendrick Lamar probably should’ve won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. But that’s how things work in music: sometimes awards don’t always go to the best material out there. Once something gets an award, however, or even appears on an awards show, it tends to get a lot more play.

Case in point: Stevie Wonder. The music legend performed with Daft Punk, Nile Rogers, and Pharrell Williams (and his now-famous hat) during an epic performance that mashed up the French duo’s multi-nominated “Get Lucky” with Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life jam “Another Star.” It had everyone at the Grammys on their feet – Steven Tyler even dad-danced to it – but it also proved very popular on music streaming services. According to Spotify, streams of “Another Star” increased 635 percent from Sunday to Monday among their 24 million users.

Daft Punk also saw a pretty big uptick in streams following the show with an overall 205 percent increase in streams of the duo’s songs. (Spotify wouldn’t release exact numbers, but theoretically speaking the increase means that if the band’s songs were streamed 100,000 times on Sunday, they were streamed 305,000 times on Monday.) Other Grammy performers also saw increased streams following the telecast. Taylor Swift’s catalog saw a 67 percent increase in streams, for example, Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” show-opener had an increase of 52 percent, and Lorde’s numbers went up 46 percent.

The biggest increases, however, came not for current hits but rather performances of classic songs like “Another Star.” Metallica’s “One,” which the band performed with classical pianist Lang Lang, had a 125 percent increase in streams overnight. And streams of Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” – performed on the telecast with Robin Thicke – went up 150 percent, demonstrating the power of the awards show spotlight to drive attention to older tracks. (Though, to be fair, some of those streams may be coming from folks who just heard the track in David O. Russell’s American Hustle.)

All told, the Spotify numbers are an interesting indicator of the cultural influence of the Grammys and how they can affect the consumption of music.

Trophies are doled out based on votes from the Recording Academy members, who are all music industry professionals. Their picks differed a bit from the most-streamed tracks on Spotify, but not by much. A few days before the Grammys ceremony, Spotify ran the numbers to predict who would win in the big categories based entirely on total number of streams. They ended up 3-for-5 in their predictions, successfully naming Macklemore and Ryan Lewis as Best New Artist winners, Lorde’s “Royals” as Best Pop Solo Performance winner, and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” as Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

The data incorrectly predicted Imagine Dragons to win Record of the Year for “Radioactive” and Macklemore and Lewis’ The Heist to win for Album of the Year. Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and Random Access Memories took those honors, respectively. Much like classic tracks, this lower rate of listening meant bigger gains for their streams after the show; Daft Punk saw a 205 percent jump after their big win, while Spotify faves Macklemore and Imagine Dragons only saw modest increases.

After the ceremony Macklemore, who won Best New Artist and three rap awards,Instagrammed an image of a text he sent to Kendrick Lamar, who had seven nominations and won zero awards, that said, “I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you.” On Spotify, at least, the tide was turning. Following the Grammys, Macklemore’s tracks saw a 65 percent increase from Sunday to Monday. Lamar? His spins increased nearly 100 percent.