The Short Version
Reach has eased since the August high, and every sign of real fandom is up. Here's what's working, what to keep an eye on, and the quick fixes.
Working
- Followers have gone up every week since HELLO DENIAL, from 25 to 1,156.
- Saves are at their best rate of the year. 93 saves per 1,000 streams in the week to Oct 19, ahead of album week (90).
- TOMGIRL reached 44% of monthly active listeners in its first 28 days, double the LUCY IN DISGUISE EP (22%).
Watch
- Monthly listeners have eased from the mid-August high of 31,168 to 10,372, while active listeners held up.
- Half the year's streams came from third-party playlists (49.8%), and the 11 biggest don't match the music.
- Those lists show up as market spikes: Indonesia, Mexico and, in the last 28 days, the US.
- Editorial is the open door. No Spotify editorial playlist yet among the year's 100 biggest playlist sources.
Quick fixes
- Four album tracks have no Canvas: revolve, RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl and don't wait on me.
How the Year Moved
Monthly listeners climbed in two waves, first around tomgirl in the spring and then around the album, and TOMGIRL took them to 31,168 in the week ending Aug 17. Since then the wider audience has eased to 10,372. Monthly active listeners, the people who go looking for Quentin on their own, held up well: 4,258 now, against a peak of 5,853 on Aug 24.
That shifts the shape of the audience. Active listeners made up about 9% of the monthly count in early March. Today they're 41%.
Who's Listening
Spotify counts 134,765 people who've heard Quentin in the last two years. Most of them met the music through someone else's playlist, radio or autoplay. That's the biggest opportunity on the page: a large crowd that already knows a song or two and hasn't come looking yet.
233 super listeners, about 2% of the monthly audience, played Quentin an average of 54 times each. By Spotify's tier averages that's roughly 12,600 streams, or 37% of everything in the window. Active listeners as a whole account for 71% of streams.
The Songs
Over 12 months, tomgirl (I'm in my head) is the biggest song with 102,328 streams, 29.0% of the catalog, followed by HELLO DENIAL (91,309) and PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES (65,756). Right now PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES carries the catalog, with 42.8% of streams in the last 28 days.
| Song | Streams 12 months | Share | Listeners 12 months | Saves 12 months | Save rate | Streams last 28 days | vs prev. 28 days | Canvas |
|---|
The four quieter album tracks have the highest save rates in the catalog. Between 36% and 64% of the people who heard revolve, RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl and don't wait on me saved them, against 7% to 11% for the five bigger songs. These audiences are small (991 to 1,906 listeners each over 12 months), so a handful of saves moves the rate. The gap is still wide, and these are the same four songs missing a Canvas.
Daddy's Little Girl is the clearest example of organic listening in the catalog. It hasn't been on any playlist and gets very little from Spotify's algorithm, and still 991 people played it 2,640 times over 12 months and 632 saved it. Its streams come from the US (36.9%) and Brazil (36.5%), and it holds up on Apple too: 2.8 Spotify streams for every Apple play, against 11 across the catalog.
Where the Streams Come From
Half of Quentin's audio streams this year came from third-party playlists: 175,733 streams from 92 lists. Spotify's own playlists added 6.9%. No Spotify editorial playlist shows up among the year's 100 biggest playlist sources.
The 11 biggest third-party lists alone sent 135,340 streams, 38.3% of the year and more than five times everything Spotify's own playlists sent (24,236). Radio (7,993) and Discover Weekly (7,400) are the strongest of Spotify's own. Release Radar sent 554.
The next section looks at why these streams don't turn into fans.
Streams That Don't Build Fans
Over the last 12 months, the 11 biggest third-party playlists on Quentin's songs sent 135,340 streams, 38.3% of everything. None of them matches the music, so the streams they send stay passive and rarely turn into active listeners or fans.
- The listener came for something else. Another artist, a mood, an era, a coffee-shop soundtrack or background noise.
- The song doesn't match. However good it is, they put the list on for something else.
- They skip, or don't finish it. Skip rates go up and the song loses the listener early.
- Nothing builds. These are passive streams. They don't create active listeners or fans, and they do nothing for the algorithm or the catalog. They actually do the opposite and work against the songs.
| Playlist | Built for | Quentin songs | Added | Listeners | Streams | Lines up with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The 11 biggest third-party lists | – | 135,340 | 38.3% of the year | |||
| Song | US | Brazil | Indonesia | Mexico |
|---|
Highlighted: shares that jump where a third-party list carries the song.
The COVID-era list sent 20,144 streams of tomgirl and LUCY IN DISGUISE, 76.5% of all Indonesian streams this year. Indonesia takes 31.2% of LUCY IN DISGUISE and 11.9% of tomgirl, and barely registers on anything else. It jumped after the list added the songs in June.
Mexico takes 15.7% of HELLO DENIAL, against 3.3% or less on the songs no list pushed there. That lines up with "Rihanna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears" (added Apr 11) and "Gorillaz - Exitos" (Jun 23). Gorillaz - Exitos added PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES on Jul 25, and Mexico's streams of it jumped to 4,094 in August.
In the last 28 days the US took 48.7% of PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES, against 16% to 30% on every other song with location data. That lines up with the 5,284 streams the Tame Impala list sent that song in the same window.
Apple cross-check: in the same four weeks Spotify counted 4,848 PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES streams from Austin, 34% of the song. On Apple, Austin isn't among the song's top five cities for those weeks, so it sent fewer than 46 plays.
Brazil was there from the first single: HELLO DENIAL went from 254 Brazilian streams in February to 2,270 in April, months before most of these lists arrived. It's 12.7% of the catalog and rises to between 31% and 36.5% on revolve, RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl and don't wait on me, which have no third-party lists at all.
Each big third-party list shows up as a spike in one country: VIBES in Indonesia, the Rihanna and Gorillaz lists in Mexico, the Tame Impala list in the US. So these lists add up to less than their numbers suggest: the streams stay passive, and they bend the audience map toward listeners who came for something else.
Brazil was there before most of the lists and it's strongest on the songs no list touches. It's Quentin's real market outside the US.
Did any of these placements come through a third-party playlist service? It looks that way. The biggest lists don't fit the music, several line up with a spike in a single country, and the add dates cluster: ten lists added Quentin on Feb 20, HELLO DENIAL's release day, six on Jul 26, five on Feb 24 and five on Apr 26. Across all 92 lists, 33 added a song within three days of a release. If so, it's worth stopping. These services deliver streams, but nothing else: no fans, no active listeners, nothing for the algorithm or the catalog.
Step away from third-party lists altogether. Put the effort where real listening already happens: Brazil, the album deep cuts that Brazil and the US keep coming back to, and an editorial pitch for the next release. The big lists are already winding down. Best Tame Impala Songs drove 541 streams in the last seven days, against about 1,470 a week across the full 28, and 3AM Chill vibes 448, against about 580.
Saves at Their Best Rate of the Year
Saves per 1,000 streams ranged from 10.7 in the week to May 4 to 93.3 in the week to Oct 19. The latest week is the best of the year, just ahead of album week (90.1 in the week to Aug 3). The jump started on Oct 3.
Saves jumped to more than four times their earlier pace from Oct 3, while daily streams barely moved (about 1,160 a day before, 1,230 after). Something sent people to the save button. If it was a campaign, a Marquee or a fan moment, it's the thing to repeat before the next release.
Where They Are
Over 12 months the US accounts for 28.9% of streams and Brazil 12.7%, then Indonesia (7.5%) and Mexico (7.4%). Those last two come mostly from third-party lists (see section 06): Indonesia from the COVID-era playlist, Mexico from the artist-named lists. Brazil was there from the first single and is strongest on the songs no list touches. S4A lists Brazil, Italy and Mexico as the countries with the highest share of active listeners. For Mexico that's a high share of a small group: its playlist traffic has mostly faded (HELLO DENIAL went from 2,580 Mexican streams in August to 143 in October 1 to 20), so the few listeners left there are more likely to be choosing Quentin on purpose.
Spotify vs Apple Music
Apple is about a ninth of Spotify's size for Quentin, and it's a useful second opinion. Listening that shows up on both platforms is real. Listening that only shows up on Spotify points back to the playlists.
| Spotify | Apple Music | |
|---|---|---|
| Streams / playsBoth 12 months: Spotify audio streams, Apple plays | 353,065 | 31,775 |
| United StatesShare of streams / plays | 28.9% | 46.1% |
| Brazil | 12.7% · #2 | 7.7% · #2 |
| Mexico | 7.4% | 5.3% |
| Indonesia | 7.5% | 0.1% (22 plays) |
| Philippines | 2.5% | 0.1% (23 plays) |
| Album deep cutsrevolve, RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl, don't wait on me | 4.4% | 14.1% |
| Editorial playlists | None in the top 100 sources | 1 (New in Rock, 87 plays) |
| Radio and Shazam | – | 1,913 spins · 2,641 Shazams |
Full detail on the Apple Music audit.
Quentin is based in Austin, and the local love is real. KUTX and KUTX HD2 have played the songs at least 927 times, and Austin is the #1 city on Apple with 1,470 plays since February. In the last four weeks, though, Spotify counted 4,848 PEANUT BUTTER CIGARETTES streams from Austin, 34% of the song, while Apple shows fewer than 46 plays of it there. The real Austin audience can't account for that spike. The Tame Impala list can.
Brazil is the #2 country on both platforms. On Spotify it was there from the first single and takes 31% to 36.5% of the deep cuts, which no third-party list touches. On Apple it has 2,458 plays and at least 363 Shazams, people hearing the songs out in the world and looking them up. Spotify does 18 streams for every Apple play in Brazil, against 1,197 in Indonesia.
Next Moves
- Add Canvas to the four album tracksrevolve, RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl and don't wait on me. They have the best save rates in the catalog and nothing on screen.
- Put the next release in UpcomingA Countdown Page and an editorial pitch. No editorial playlist shows up among the year's 100 biggest playlist sources, so the pitch is the way in.
- Step away from third-party listsNone of the top third-party lists this year matched the music: other artists, moods, eras, a coffee-shop list. If any came through a playlist service, it's worth pausing.
- Trace the Oct 3 saves jumpSaves went from 24 a day to 109. Pin down the cause and plan to repeat it.
- Plan around Brazil and the USBrazil was there from the first single and takes 31% to 36.5% of the album deep cuts, which no list touches. Indonesia and Mexico come mostly from third-party lists, so they're less useful for market planning.
Data note · sources and cutoffs
- Apple comparison · Apple Music for Artists, pulled Oct 22, 2026, plays over the same 12 months (see the Apple Music audit).
- Source · Spotify for Artists, artist ID 4GpI0u4lFwCzzYnwNlglbi, pulled Oct 21, 2026. Spotify only.
- 12-month view · Oct 21, 2025 to Oct 20, 2026; Quentin's first release was Feb 20, 2026, so this covers the whole catalog. Weekly charts use 7-day blocks from S4A's daily chart.
- Latest 28 days · Sep 22 to Oct 19, 2026. Changes compare against the 28 days before.
- Playlist sources, 12 months · S4A's top 100 playlist sources (listeners, streams, date added), Oct 21, 2025 to Oct 20, 2026. The smallest carried 107 streams, so lists below that sit in "everything else".
- Still to pull for 12 months · age and gender.
- Weekly trend · 7-day blocks built from S4A's daily chart; the first block (Feb 20 to 23) covers four days. Monthly listeners, active listeners and followers are end-of-week snapshots. Weekly streams total 356,702, within 0.02% of S4A's 356,645 for all recordings.
- Audio only · song-level figures use each song's audio recording: 353,065 streams over 12 months and 33,343 in the last 28 days. The second recording S4A lists under six songs is the music video, so those plays are left out. Artist-level charts (weekly streams, daily streams, monthly listeners) include them, about 1% of streams.
- Song figures · S4A showed a "still gathering your data" banner, so all-time listener and save counts were blank; 12-month figures are used for save rates. All music came out in 2026, so 12 months covers the whole catalog.
- Super listener streams · estimated from S4A's per-tier average streams × listeners.
- 12-month markets and playlists · each song's Country comparisons chart and Playlists tab, Oct 21, 2025 to Oct 20, 2026. Playlist totals cover the top third-party lists per song only. Spotify's country totals for Indonesia, Mexico and smaller countries don't include every song, so their real shares are a little higher.
- Song markets · per-song Location and Playlists tabs, Sep 23 to Oct 20, 2026 (one day later than the main window). RESENTMENT, Daddy's Little Girl and don't wait on me returned S4A errors on these tabs.
- Playlists · top 33 of about 1,600 listener playlists captured (11,617 streams). No editorial playlist streams in the window.
- Track credits · tracklist from Quentin's Spotify listing, pulled Oct 21, 2026. No featured artists.
- Not captured · source-of-streams split, per-song playlist and location tabs, Video & Visuals beta, Merch & Events.