SubmitHub displays an "average listener" number next to most playlists on the platform. It's our best estimate of how many people will actually hear a song added to that playlist.
What the number represents
We calculate a base 28-day listener estimate for each playlist: how many people listen to songs on that playlist during a 28-day window. The number shown on the site scales with how long a curator typically keeps songs in their playlist.
So if a playlist has a base 28-day number of 100, but the curator typically keeps songs in for 90 days, the displayed figure is a range around 320 (100 scaled up by 90/28). The idea: the number you see should reflect the total listeners your song is likely to get during its actual time on the playlist.
What factors into the calculation
Why it might not match your own numbers
Our estimate is an average across songs on the playlist, not a number for any specific song. Your track might outperform or underperform depending on the song, the playlist's current size, and where in the playlist it sits. We deliberately err conservative: we'd rather you beat expectations than underdeliver.
If you want more accurate numbers
The single best way to make sure your playlist's numbers reflect reality is to share your Spotify for Artists data with us. It only takes a couple of minutes, and we walk through it in the Sharing data from Spotify for Artists article.
Long-term: keep sharing music consistently. The more data flows through, the more accurate our estimates get.