How Strong Is the Barbie Effect? The Soundtrack Analysis

Urska Jaksa

Jul 28, 2023

“Barbie the Album” is out, released along with the highly anticipated movie. The pink marketing machine was working around the globe and around the clock, including releasing four singles before the movie premiere.

How did Barbie’s massive campaign influence their streams? We took off our rose-colored glasses to look at some numbers with Viberate Analytics.

We analyzed streaming data of the four singles from the soundtrack to see how they compare to the artists’ previous releases in the last 12 months, which were not connected to a major brand and backed by the year-long marketing campaign. Specifically, we analyzed the streaming performance in the first 4 weeks after the songs’ release.

We also looked at the streams in the Barbie release week  (Jul 17–24, 2023) and delivered the "Barbie Effect" verdict.

Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice (with Aqua): Barbie World

Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sampled Aqua Eurohit “Barbie Girl” – and got Aqua trending on Spotify. Let’s start by analyzing this release by comparing Ice Spice’s tracks by current Spotify streams.

Now, let’s compare “Barbie World” to “Karma” by Taylor Swift, a song that Ice Spice is featured on.

Streams [first 4 weeks after release]:

• Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj: Barbie World (released Jun 23, 2023): 59.7M
• Taylor Swift (feat. Ice Spice): Karma (released May 26, 2023): 29.3M

Streams [Barbie release week]:

• Barbie World: 18.5M
• Karma: 2.1M

The verdict: 

Taylor Swift is on top of every chart, but Ice Spice’s “Karma” feature didn’t hit the spot with the fans. However, the Barbie effect was strong on the Nicki Minaj collab. This could be a case of better compatibility between the two artists. Plus, Nicki Minaj’s fans are not called Barbz for no reason.

PinkPantheress: Angel

This is PinkPantheress’ current track comparison by streaming numbers.

We’ll compare the “Angel” release from “Barbie the Album” to her hit “Boy’s a Liar”.

Streams [first 4 weeks after release]:

• PinkPantheress: Angel (released Jun 8, 2023): 8.9M
• PinkPantheress: Boy’s a liar (Nov 30, 2022): 28.5M

Streams [Barbie release week]:

• Angel: 2.1M
• Boy’s a liar: 1.7M

The verdict: 

The soundtrack feature didn’t have a massive influence on PinkPantheress streaming. The numbers are dwarfed by the massive hit “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” (on which Ice Spice also features, btw).  The numbers above are for the original release which was streaming-wise around three times more impactful than “Angel”.

Karol G (feat. Aldo Ranks): WATATI

Here is the current streaming comparison of some of Karol G’s most popular songs, including WATATI from “Barbie the Album”.

Karol G also released her album on February 24. On this album, she collaborated with Shakira on the song “TQG”. We’ll compare Karol G’s Barbie release to this Shakira collab.

Streams [first 4 weeks after release]:

• Karol G (feat. Aldo Ranks): WATATI (released Jun 1, 2023): 12.4M
• Karol G, Shakira: TQG (released Feb 24, 2023): 207.8M    

Streams [Barbie release week]:

• WATATI: 4.2M
• TQG: 14.9M

The verdict: 

The Barbie release doesn’t compare to Karol G’s greatest hits. “TQG” collab also came after Shakira smashed all records with her diss track of ex Pique on “BZRP Music Sessions”. This Colombian duo continued the storyline and its success.

Dua Lipa: Dance the Night

Dua Lipa had the main Barbie single. “Dance the Night” was also released first, on May 25.

Streams [first 4 weeks after release]:  62.7M

Streams [Barbie release week]: 18.7M

The verdict: 

Well, this is a hit. Dua Lipa (who also stars in the movie) made the most out of the Barbie feature. She also didn’t have any other releases in the last 12 months – that’s why there’s no release – which might have contributed to the high anticipation.

In the end, the most simple conclusion is that the more immersed the artist was in the story and the more it fits their brand, the stronger the Barbie effect was.

To look into the numbers yourself, go to Viberate Analytics.

Cover image: Mattel, Inc.