Methodology
How the Artist Score works
Every score ships with its receipt: benchmark version, population size, formula version, and the metrics used. This page explains each piece.
Three different numbers, never mixed
The Artist Score is a WORLDWIDE reach percentile. It is separate from your Runiuni Local Rank (your position in your city's leaderboard, earned from real Runiuni engagement) and your Artist Level (New → Regular → Trusted → Veteran → Legend, earned over time). We always label them separately.
What goes in
Licensed reach metrics for your Spotify artist profile: monthly listeners, followers, and 28-day listener growth. Spotify's public API doesn't expose the numbers a serious benchmark needs, so identity comes from Spotify and metrics come from a licensed music-data provider. We never scrape.
How the number is computed
Each metric becomes an empirical percentile against the benchmark population (ties get the midpoint). A raw reach score combines them — 60% listeners, 25% followers, 15% growth — and your final score is that raw score's percentile in the same population. "Top X%" is simply 100 minus your score. The formula is versioned; scores from different versions are never compared as if they were the same.
The benchmark
Scores compare tracked Spotify artist profiles worldwide — the exact population count is shown on every score receipt. We do not claim "every Spotify artist". Benchmarks are rebuilt, validated, and swapped atomically; a partial build can never go live.
Missing data is missing, not zero
Monthly listeners are required — without them we show "unavailable" instead of guessing. Missing growth uses a documented neutral percentile (confidence: standard). Missing followers renormalizes the formula (confidence: limited). Every receipt lists exactly which metrics contributed.
When we say no
If our metrics provider or the benchmark is unavailable, you get an honest error — never a made-up number. Development fixtures are hard-blocked from production.
Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB. Runiuni Artist Scores are produced by Runiuni and are not created, approved, or endorsed by Spotify.