Spotify predicts Grammy winners using song and album streaming data

Social media is constantly pitching itself as a method of market predictions, thanks to the intense amount of consumer conversations its home to. And now, streaming service Spotify says that thanks to its data on our listening habits, it’s able to predict this year’s Grammy winners. 

With over 20 million subscribers and 5 million paying customers, Spotify can break down its users’ music listening habit – using song and album streams – to get a small snapshot of music popularity. This sampling, according to Spotify, offers a pretty accurate look at who will end up taking home some statues this Sunday night. 

Of course, if you’re familiar with the Grammys, the awards are garnered based on the votes from colleagues in the recording industry. Even if a song is considered to be “popular,” it may not necessarily grab a nomination or necessarily win an award. You might remember Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun publicly lashing out on Twitter last month for the Grammys failing to recognize Bieber as an award nominee. Braun cited Bieber selling 2 million copies of his album Believe and creating three top ten singles on the Billboard charts as the source of his frustration with the Grammys.

So with this in mind, while Spotify has made five predictions leading up the most prestigious music awards, really it’s up to Grammy voters to ultimately decide the winners. The data might say one thing – but the recording industry may not agree. 

Either way, the following are Spotify’s predictions for this year’s Grammy winners:

• Gotye for Record of Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with chart-topping hit ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’
• Mumford & Son’s folk album ‘Babel’ for Album of the Year
• The Lumineers for Best New Artist over Fun., Frank Ocean, and Alabama Shakes
• Carly Rae Jepsen’s catchy hit ‘Call Me Maybe’ for Best Pop Solo Performance
• Carrie Underwood’s ‘Blown Away’ for Best Country Song

Keep these predictions in mind if you watch the Grammys this Sunday, February 10 – or if you want to put your prediction abilities to the test, Spotify is asking users to predict the winners using its “Predict the Winners” app, which is also gifting a winner tickets to the 2014 Grammys.