On Record, Q2 2026

What actually moved the numbers.

We tracked 34 new releases across Sahaya for three months. Some took off straight away. Others found their audience weeks later.

Here are the five things we’d want every artist to know before their next release.

Read the five lessons Full report (PDF)
28.1Mstreams analysed 34new releases 9campaigns

Based on real daily artist data. No industry averages. Every artist and song is anonymised.

01

A campaign opens the door. The algorithm can carry you through.

Both paid campaigns lifted streams while the money was being spent. And for one record, the campaign started something bigger.

Within days of the spend finishing, the algorithm picked the music up on its own, reaching around 1,400 unpaid streams a day at its peak.

The best campaigns don’t just deliver streams. They start momentum that keeps going after the spend.

~1,400

Unpaid streams a day at peak, after the campaign had finished. Nobody paid for these.

02

Saves keep the door open.

You don’t need a huge spike. When people save your song and come back to it, the algorithm keeps feeding it to listeners.

Release J

20.7%

save rate

Held a steady ~380 streams a day, all quarter

Release D

0.7%

save rate, despite peaking above 2,000 a day

Settled at ~5 streams a day

03

Your first week is only the beginning.

One release we tracked had five streams in its first week. A month later it was doing 7,500 a week. Across the quarter, launch-week size didn’t predict which records would still be growing a month on.

A quiet release week isn’t a verdict. Give your record time to find its people.

5to7,500

Streams in week one, then its weekly pace a month later.

04

There’s more than one way in.

Everyone talks about Discover Weekly, but it’s far from the only door. Radio and algorithmic Mixes did the heavy lifting.

If Radio and Mixes start picking up your record, that’s one of the best signs you can get.

12×

More streams from Radio and Mixes than from Discover Weekly and Release Radar combined.

05

One day doesn’t define your record.

Daily streams jump around, and that’s completely normal. Across thousands of predictions, the week-by-week direction told us far more than any single day.

So a quiet Tuesday isn’t something to lose sleep over. Step back, look at the week, and follow the trend.

See the prediction methodology in the full report

Follow the week. Trust the trend.

What this means for your next release

Four things to take into your next release. None of them cost a penny.

  • Give every release a fair run.

    Week one is a starting point. One of the quarter’s best stories started with five streams.

  • Look out for Radio and Mixes.

    Pick-up there was the most reliable early sign of sustained growth we saw.

  • Follow the weekly trend.

    It tells you far more about where a record is heading than any single day.

  • Use campaigns to open doors.

    Paid exposure gets your music heard. Saves and repeat listens are what keep it growing afterwards.

Want this reading on your music?

Send us your music. Sahaya will look at the signals around it and we’ll tell you whether we think it’s ready for a push.

Send us your music

Full Q2 report: methodology, charts and the complete dataset

The full Q2 2026 report has every chart, the prediction accuracy results and anonymised release-level data. All figures come from observed daily data for 1 April to 30 June 2026. Days we didn’t capture are left as gaps, never estimated.

Download the Q2 report