International Music Preferences: An Analysis of the Determinants of Song Popularity on Spotify for the U.S., Norway, Taiwan, Ecuador, and Costa Rica

This paper examines data from Spotify’s API for 2017-2018 to determine the effects of song attributes on the success of tracks on Spotify’s Top 200 Chart across five different countries: the U.S., Norway, Taiwan, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. Two dependent variables are used to measure the success of a song – a track’s peak position on the charts and the number of days it survives on a country’s Top 200 Chart. Using ten separate regressions, one for each dependent variable in all five countries, it is concluded that the presence of a featured guest on a track increases a song’s peak position and the number of days it survives on the charts in almost every country. Further, songs that are perceived as “happier” are more successful for both metrics in Norway and Taiwan while those that are louder and more aggressive have a shorter lifespan on the charts in three out of five of the countries studied. The paper concludes that further research should be conducted with a larger, more diverse dataset to see if these findings hold and if they are present in other countries as well