"Yes, skip-rate is a metric that we editors take into consideration on how to move on songs, but it's just one metric out of many."
Turns out all the hype around Spotify "skip-rates" -- when a listener skips a track less than 30 seconds into listening -- might not be such an important metric in the service's playlist placements as previously thought.
"I would once and for all like to kill the myth that it's just about something called skip rate," Spotify's Nordic head of shows and editorial Daniel Breitholtz told an audience at the Slush Music conference in Helsinki, Finland, on Wednesday (Nov. 29), Music Ally reports. "That is simply not the truth. Yes, skip-rate is a metric that we editors take into consideration on how to move on songs, but it's just one metric out of many."
As Spotify's playlists become an increasingly important element of breaking new artists, record labels are focused on finding whatever upper hand they can in securing coveted placements for their acts. But as Breitholtz explained, there's no single key to success here. "There’s a bunch of stuff that we take in to consideration," he said.