What is an online music service trying to prove with Grammy predictions? In all cases there is a big data set. Those data are never wrong, so the predictions accurately reflect listening choices made by the service’s users. when predictions differ from each other, it only means that one platform’s users skew differently from another platform’s users. And when turn out to be correct, it only proves that one service’s user base is aligned with Grammy voters.
In other words, there is nothing whatsoever at stake, in reputation or credibility. It is sheer fun. And the truth is that big independent data sets are often aligned in the realm of hit music. Category-leading hits in iTunes are likely to top charts in Spotify.
Comparing predictions from Spotify and Shazam is more interesting because those two apps are used differently. Spotify streams music from a server catalog; Shazam identifies music playing anywhere. Still, perhaps sadly, their predictions of Album of the Year and Best Artist are identical: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as Best Artist in both lists, and their album, Heist, predicted to win the album category. That’s a lot of sameness.
Spotify and Shazam differ when it comes to Record of the Year: Spotify predicts Radioactive from Imagine Dragons, and Shazam discloses that Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke was searched most often.
Each service made predictions in a few non-overlapping categories. Here are Spotify’s picks, and Shazam’s.