Spotify gives artists fan data to help them plan tours better

After falling out with artists like Taylor Swift, Spotify is trying to impress music makers again with a tool to help them understand their fans better.

The Swedish company, the world's largest music streaming service, is rolling out a test version of Spotify Fan Insights, a "dashboard" that shows artists who and where their fans are, as well as information on listening habits.

The data is based on its 75 million users and their 1.7 billion hours of listening each month.

"This high level of fan engagement opens up a big opportunity for artists to understand their fans more deeply," Spotify said.

"We’re constantly looking for ways to bring artists and fans closer together and we’ve worked closely with artists and their teams to understand the most useful insights we can provide."

The service is currently open to a limited pool of artists, who could use it to help plan tours and sell merchandise.

Spotify said it plans to open up access in the coming months.

The move comes after Taylor Swift quit Spotify last year in a row over music royalties and after rapper Jay-Z launched Tidal, a rival service that aims to share more revenue with artists.

It also faces another challenge in Apple's Apple Music, which signed up a third of the number of paid subscribers as Spotify in the first month subscriptions were available.