How Music Charts

How Music Charts

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How Music Charts episodes

  • 2019-04-12 // Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and the Spotify Popularity Index

     

    • Highlights
      • There can only be one! Billie Eilish takes the coveted 100 Spotify Popularity Index from Ariana Grande.
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Friday April 12th 2019.
    • Friday Fun Fact
      • We’re going to try a new segment today called Friday Fun Fact where we do a little deep dive into a particular piece of data.
      • Thanks to Komala, one of our brilliant engineers, we noticed that on Wednesday this week, American artist Billie Eilish has received the honor of #1 most popular artist on Spotify according to not followers, not monthly listeners, but to a number we call the Spotify Popularity Index, or SPI.
      • What in the world is that? You don’t see it as a normal Spotify user in the app, but it sure sounds important, and it must be used for something...right?
      • According to Spotify’s API documentation, the number is “The popularity of the artist. The value will be between 0 and 100, with 100 being the most popular. The artist’s popularity is calculated from the popularity of all the artist’s tracks.” We’ve also noticed that it’s re-calculated about once a day.
      • Before we go further, let’s take a look at the top 5 according to SPI: #2 and #3 is Ariana Grande and Drake at 99, Khalid at 98 and then Post Malone at 97.
      • Apparently there can only be one artist in the 100 SPI spot, and from Feb 11th to April 9th, the crown was worn by Ariana Grande.
      • Now if the SPI is calculated from the SPI of the individual tracks, this would make sense as Grande released her last full-length album Thank U, Next on that Friday February 8th, which naturally launched her into the #1 popularity spot within a few days.
      • In turn, Billie Eilish’s newer album, WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, was released on Friday March 29th, and it took her a little under two weeks to take the crown.
      • Why did Eilish take about 12 days and Grande only 3? Likely because of the recent competition. Because before Grande in the #1 spot, it was Toronto’s very own Drake with his massively promoted Scorpion album, who was there for over half a year, from June 2018 until Grande’s February album. 
      • While Drake is currently in 882 editorial Spotify playlists, Grande at least had the benefit of time on her side for the Scorpion effect to dull its shine slightly.
      • Eilish’s album however, despite Grande currently being in 828 editorial playlists versus Eilish’s 283, needed a few more days to fight through Grande’s very strong presence on the platform.
      • Remember that it’s the popularity of each track that makes up the artist’s SPI, and so their fans’ connection with their material may also come into play as a factor: according to a Music Business Worldwide article on March 21st, Eilish’s 800K album pre-adds on Apple Music shattered any previous record on the platform. While it’s obviously not Spotify, it does say something about how her fans seem to be dedicated to the album, while Grande’s body of work seems to be driven towards singles.
      • It’s also worth noting that Grande’s least played track of her album, “make up” at 47M spins, beats out more than 60% of Eilish’s album tracks by spins, meaning that it must be more about each track’s virality, for lack of a better term, than aggregate numbers, meaning that time, indeed, must play a major factor. 
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday April 12th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • Look out for our new article on the success of female artists on the charts from our newest data scientist team member Josh, on our Medium blog at blog.chartmetric.io.
      • Feel free to sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Friday, have a lovely weekend. 
    4 min
  • 2019-04-11 // Berlin's Shazam chart, The Prince Karma success in Europe

     

    • Highlights
      • Berlin enjoyed some reggaetón and dance music on yesterday’s Shazam chart
      • DJ/producer The Prince Karma recalls some Chainsmokers viral success in greater Europe
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Thursday April 11th 2019.
    • Chart Highlight 
      • Let’s take a look at Berlin’s Shazam chart yesterday, which featured 50 tracks.
      • It was a very pop-oriented list, with 18 “pop” genre tags leading as the most common and the “dance” genre tag coming in 2nd with 8 occurences.
      • American singer-songwriter Ava Max was the only artist to have more than one track, with “So Am I” and “Sweet but Psycho” taking the #10 and #27 positions.
      • Daddy Yankee’s “Con Calma feat. Snow” was the #1 most Shazamed track in Berlin, having been in their Top 50 for 48 days now with 3M Shazams total.
      • The cheeky dance tune “Later Bitches” by The Prince Karma at Ultra Music took the #2 spot in Berlin. It was released back in May of last year and has a total of 5.2M Shazams globally.
      • The #3 position was occupied by the Madism dance remix of “Someone You Loved” by Scotland’s Lewis Capaldi. That is its current peak position in Berlin and has a total of 1.5M Shazams.
      • In terms of track age and time on chart, Berlin’s taste in music tends to be in middle of the road, as most of the chart is neither new or old, 27 of the tracks being anywhere from 1-6 months since release.
      • And once they do make it to their city’s top 50, the tracks stay there for about the same amount of time, 1-6 months.
    • Artist Highlight
      • Tracking back to the #2 position, the song “Later Bitches” has played out very well for DJ/producer The Prince Karma.
      • There’s little information out on the Ultra Music label artist, but according to chartsinfrance.net, he is originally from Turkey and has been enjoying the success of his track since late last year.
      • Somewhat similar to The Chainsmokers’ first hit “#SELFIE” in 2014, “Later Bitches” features a simple lead instrument hook, a four-on-the-floor kick drum beat, and funny spoken lines coming from an overzealous clubber like “what the hell do you mean I have to wait in line” and “I shouldn’t have had that last shot”.
      • The Prince Karma has 1.7M Spotify monthly listeners and only 9K followers, giving him an astronomical listener to follower ratio of 197 that points towards an artist currently experiencing a viral hit. This ratio places him in the realm of no global superstars, but does put him in the company of likely other viral emerging artists such as acoustic UK songwriters Clementine Duo at a 197 ratio and Swedish singer-songwriter Plasi at 196.
      • Mirroring his success on the Berlin Shazam chart, The Prince Karma is currently on the Top Hits Deutschland playlist on Spotify at 1.7M followers, while having been featured on Dance Party, Dance Rising and the Global Viral 50 playlists.
      • The track also features on Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 Germany and Today’s Hits playlists in the German storefront, and the #73 position on the 7th most followed playlist on the Deezer platform, Orange Select.
      • Probably the most interesting fact regarding the DJ’s only released track, the official YouTube video has 3.5M views since Sept 2018, but another video pre-dating the official one has 40.8M views, on a YouTube channel d2eTV (“Down to Earth”).
      • Down2Earth Music Group is a multi-functional music company whose YouTube channel has an international presence, as the “Later Bitches” top comments section has comments in English, Polish, Russian and German...which makes sense as The Prince Karma has just finished up a Central & Eastern European tour.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday April 11th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • Feel free to sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Thursday, see you tomorrow. 
    4 min
  • 2019-04-10 // Today's Top Hits on Spotify and Billboard Emerging Artist Kiana Ledé

     

    • Highlights
      • Today’s Top Hits at almost 23M followers remains Spotify’s crown jewel
      • Billboard Emerging Artist Kiana Ledé begins to spread her wings 
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Wednesday April 10th 2019.
    • Playlist Highlight 
      • With 9M more followers than the #2 Spotify playlist, Today’s Top Hits remains playlist supreme on the Swedish streaming platform.
      • Growing at 1% (or ~170K) followers in the past month, the list is at 22.9M of them and is due to break the 23M mark within a month.
      • For the past 2.5 years, it’s been disciplined at keeping only 50 tracks, though this week, it’s added a few more to total 53.
      • Leading that list is Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus with the “Old Town Road - Remix”, and American singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin in the #2 spot with the sad breakup song “Let Me Down Slowly”.
      • The inescapable Billie Eilish holds down the bronze medal at #3 with the kick-drum-driven “bad guy” off her hot new album.
      • 55% of Today’s Top Hits this week comes from American artists, while 10% of the list comes from the United Kingdom, including Glasgow’s indietronica CHVURCHES and London-based Rita Ora in a collaboration with Brazil’s Anitta.
      • Puerto Rico contributes to about 5% of the list with tracks from reggaetón kings Daddy Yankee, Ozuna and Farruko.
      • In terms of track adds and removals, most of the frontline playlist gets added on Global Release Friday, but Today’s Top Hits tends to remove tracks more loosely across Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
      • In the past month, 58% of the tracklist got refreshed, and the adds are typically new releases. This week for example, 31 of the 53 tracks are brand new.
      • Despite Today’s Top Hits reputation as a place for new records, it’s good to remember that once a track gets put on, it tends to live there: over 75% of the historical tracks they’ve placed stay on for 1-6 months.
      • For a deeper dive, check out our Today’s Top Hits blog post in the show notes.
    • Artist Highlight
      • “I don't gotta be in love with you to love you”. That is a lyric from Phoenix-born, LA-based artist Kiana Ledé, who is hiding down in the #46 spot of Today’s Top Hits with the sultry and bittersweet breakup track “EX”.
      • The R&B singer who moonlighted as an actor on MTV’s Scream and Netflix’s All About the Washingtons, her music career has been on a major marketing push since last month.
      • With 5.2M Spotify monthly listeners and 213K followers, this puts her at an excellent listener to follower ratio of 25. For context, AWAL superstar Lauv is at 24.1 and young American pop star MAX at 25.3.
      • Ledé’s playlist situation completely blew up in March, adding the 4.9M follower Are & Be Spotify playlist and 1.8M follower Hot Rhythmic playlist, as well as being added to the sexual contextual playlists Love, Sex and Water at 1.6M and Bedroom Jams just under 1M.
      • She’s in the #33 position on the 65-track Today’s Hits Apple playlist in the US, and virtually all of the storefronts for the A-List: R&B playlist, ranging from position #16-33 depending on the country.
      • On Amazon Music, she’s on six editorial playlists, including the genre-focused Introducing: / Fresh / and Chill R&B playlists.
      • Not limited to digital, her radio play in the South is strong with over 430 radio spins in Florida, 374 spins in Lousiana and 343 spins in Texas since the beginning of the year.
      • With her smooth sound, Hollywood connections and her recent publicity push on Billboard, we’re sure to see more of Ms. Ledé in the months to come.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday April 10th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • Feel free to sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Wednesday, see you tomorrow. 
    4 min
  • 2019-04-09 // Spotify's Viral 50 chart and Russian trap duo Rauf & Faik

     

    • Highlights
      • Spotify’s Viral 50 chart highlights music from around the world
      • Russian trap duo Rauf & Faik take off in the Caucasus region
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Tuesday April 9th 2019.
    • Chart Highlight 
      • On Friday April 5th, the Spotify Viral 50 highlighted the global nature of streaming by featuring a Philadelphia-born Puerto Rican artist remix, an Indonesian R&B collaboration, and a Russian hip-hop duo all in the top 10.
      • The #1 spot is occupied by Philadelphia-born, Puerto Rico-raised artist Dalex along with six collaborators in the vibey rap track “Pa Mí - Remix”.
      • The original track was 3:30 long, but the new version is a full 6:00, making room for other Latin artists such as Argentina’s Cazzu and Panama’s Sech.
      • It’s released by the indie label Rich Music, who signed a distribution deal with Warner Music Latina back in 2017, and the remix itself was released on Feb 6th, spending 33 days so far on the Viral 50.
      • The #2 track is slightly newer, released on Feb 21st, and that’s the Indonesian R&B collaboration “Adu Rayu” by Yovie Widianto, Tulus and Glenn Fredly.
      • Google translated as “Flirtation”, the easy-listening ballad is also featured on Top Hits Indonesia at 682K followers and on Apple Music’s The A-List: Indonesian Music.
      • The #10 track in last Friday’s Viral 50 is Russian hip-hop duo Rauf & Faik with the track “Детство” (dee-YEHTS-vha), or “Childhood”.
      • It’s currently at its peak position on the chart, still fresh-faced at only 3 days there, even though it was released half a year ago in Sept 2018.
      • The dark, melodic trap song is part of Friday’s genre tag trend, as the tag “trap music” showed up the most at 15 times with “pop rap” showing up 10 times.
      • Interestingly, the Viral 50 chart brings in the old and makes them new: 96% of the chart’s tracks are older than one month yet none of them have been on there for more than two, showing a tendency to take what’s already been released and giving them new life.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • The occupants of the #10 spot, Russian trap duo Rauf & Faik, are performing well stream-wise with 804K Spotify monthly listeners and 30K followers for a listener to follower ratio of 26, putting them in the realm of Dutch DJ/producer Sam Feldt at 26.2 and Grammy-nominated American artist Tierra Whack at 26.1.
      • Rauf & Faik seem to be making lots of waves in Turkey as they are currently featured in the #1 position on the 50-track Hot Hits Türkiye playlist at 354K followers and the Turkey Top 50 with 523K follows in the #7 position.
      • On Apple Music, they are on four different Daily Top 100 charts in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, the last of which is their country of origin, though according to our Instagram data, they are currently based in Moscow.
      • Their 463K IG followers skew very young and female, with nearly 40% of their followers falling in the 13-17 female demographic.
      • With 3/4 of their IG fanbase from Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine alone and 80% of them speaking primarily Russian, the hopes of an overseas crossover seems unlikely.
      • But since their dark, spacious trap vibes are undoubtedly taking a page out of Post Malone’s sonic playbook, you just never know.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday April 9th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • Feel free to sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow. 
    4 min
  • 2019-04-08 // Amazon Music's Newly Released Songs chart and Sara Bareilles trending on YouTube


    • Highlights
      • Khalid kicks off Amazon Music’s Newly Released Songs chart for Saturday
      • American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles gets extra YouTube views from a young artist in France
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Monday April 8th 2019.
    • Chart Highlight 
      • On Saturday, Amazon Music updated their Newly Released Songs daily chart, featuring mostly new music from the day prior.
      • 19 of the top 20 tracks were all released on Friday April 5th with the exception of Billie Eilish’s lead single “Bad Guy” off her latest album, which was released the week prior.
      • Newly Released Tracks isn’t explicitly ranked persay, but logging onto the service via a browser, it definitely gives a specific order top down, which is what we measure.
      • The chilled out track “Don’t Pretend” by Khalid feat. Toronto-based Safe leads off the list in the #1 spot, with the Jonas Brothers releasing their second single “Cool” since their comeback in the #2 position.
      • Pulling up third is none other than Smokey Robinson singing background vocals for California-native Anderson .Paak on the throwback R&B-influenced “Make It Better”.
      • Of the top 98 newly released tracks, 28 of them went underneath the Interscope Records imprint, which was in collaboration with both Grade A Productions, which is rapper Juice WRLD’s label, and of course, Billie Eilish’s label The Darkroom.
      • The fourth most occuring artist on the Amazon new songs chart was P!nk, with three tracks at the 32nd, 47th and 95th positions, including her power pop track “Walk Me Home” and scorned lover-themed “Hustle”.
      • Don’t think it’s all about American pop though, as the top 20 also included K-pop’s BLACKPINK in the #6 position with “Kill This Love” and Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn represent country in the 8 and 11 spots.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • Now in the #5 spot on that chart is California-born singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, who released on Friday the sparse, piano-driven “A Safe Place to Land” feat. John Legend.
      • The Grammy, Tony and Emmy-nominated Bareilles has led a very diversified career which has certainly spilled over into the digital music world.
      • With 6.2M Spotify monthly listeners and 1.1M followers, her listener to follower ratio is a healthy 6, placing her between Lady Gaga at about 5 and Billie Eilish at about 7.
      • She’s currently on 150 Spotify editorial playlists and 11 Apple Music editorial playlists. 
      • Her fun 2007 hit “Love Song” has still got lots of gas, being in the #85 position on the 100-track Songs to Sing in the Car Spotify playlist, which has a rapidly growing follower base of 7.7M, while “Love Song” also lives on the 6.1M follower playlist “All Out 00s” in the #61 spot.
      • The empowering 2013 single “Brave” has its own healthy life on Apple Music, featuring in Essential Motivational Songs in the #9 spot and the #6 position on Feminism Essentials.
      • Probably the most interesting data point of late for Ms. Bareilles is in her recent YouTube views in France: in the French syndicated version of the singing TV competition the Voice, a young contestant named Ursula, on March 30th, auditioned for the chair-turning judges Sara Bareilles’ single “Gravity”.
      • Ursula’s vulnerable and touching rendition of the 2007 track is most likely behind the 363% increase in YouTube views for Bareilles in the past month, as it went from 3.1K daily views to 14.7K on the same day of the episode airing….bonne chance Ursula, good luck in the competition!
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday April 8th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • Feel free to sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Monday, see you tomorrow. 
    4 min
  • 2019-04-05 // Amazon Music's "Country Heat" and Kane Brown steps into the Latin world


    • Highlights
      • Amazon Music’s “Country Heat” playlist features a who’s who in the Nashville scene today, while 
      • Country artist Kane Brown dips his toes into the Latin world with Becky G
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Friday April 5th 2019.
    • Playlist Highlight 
      • Currently at the top of Amazon Music’s Top Playlists is Country Heat, which lists “Fire tracks from the hottest acts in country music.”
      • Currently at 55 songs and just over 3 hours long, it’s of course a mostly American collection of artists besides Aussie Morgan Evans and Canadian group James Barker Band each featuring one track.
      • In terms of label representation, it’s pretty well distributed, with Sony Music in the lead with 16 of the current tracks, Universal at 9, indie Big Machine & major Warner Music at 8, and both BMG’s BBR Music Group and indie label Big Loud Records at 4 each.
      • Blake Shelton kicks off the #1 spot with his anthemic track “God’s Country”, and Chris Stapleton’s “Millionaire” about how being in love is making him a rich man brings up the rear in the #55 position.
      • Interestingly, Country Heat plays no artist favorites, as out of the entire 55 tracks, no artist appears more than once with the slight exception of Luke Combs, who placed his track “Beautiful Crazy” in the #20 spot, but appears as a guest in Brooks & Dunn’s ode to devotion in “Brand New Man” in position #51.
      • So if you’re looking for a hot country playlist that seems to like a diverse set of artists, check out Amazon’s Country Heat.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • Now pulling into that playlist’s number 13 spot is Tennessee-born, Georgia-raised Kane Brown, who recently made an interesting move into the Latin world.
      • Releasing the track “Lost in the Middle of Nowhere” with Mexican-American artist Becky G on March 28th, Brown sang in both English and Spanish, as the duo released two versions of the track on the same day.
      • Both signed to Sony Music, they have similar data profiles on Spotify, though Becky G pulls ahead of Kane Brown in some aspects. Becky G’s Spotify popularity index is at 86 out of 100 while Brown is at 79, but he slightly edges her with a listener to follower ratio of 5, while Becky G is at 4. 
      • This is most likely due to Becky G being on many more Spotify editorial playlists at 245 and having much more exposure to accumulate more followers, while Brown is only on 50 editorial playlists.
      • When it comes to daily statistics, Becky G is definitely exposing Brown to a wider crowd as Becky G has 5x more daily Spotify followers, 5x more daily YouTube views, 15x more daily Instagram followers than Brown.
      • Becky G’s top five most listened to Spotify cities? Santiago, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Lima. Kane Brown’s are all stateside: Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, LA and Houston.
      • Going by Instagram followers, Becky G’s fanbase is young but fairly spread out between 13-34, while over half of Kane Brown’s fanbase is between 18-24 only.
      • They both cater to a majority female audience, though Becky G’s fanbase is 50% Hispanic and Kane Brown’s is 83% Caucasian, showing where the collaboration can provide the most exposure to new potential fans.
      • The song itself definitely caters to each audience, as the country/English version features guitar power chords, acoustic string strumming and a straight backbeat drum pattern, while the Latin/Spanish version features reggae guitar rhythms and the trademark reggaetón beat.
      • It looks like the cross-collaboration is going well for Brown as the Spanish version has 3.2M views more than the English version, so to Kane Brown, felicitaciones!
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday April 5th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • If you want to check some of the data yourself, sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Friday, and have a great weekend! See you Monday.
    4 min
  • 2019-04-04 // Sydney's Shazam chart and Dominic Fike growing on Spotify


    • Highlights
      • Sydney, Australia revels in dance beats and romantic pop songs in yesterday’s Shazam chart
      • Florida-born Dominic Fike uses contextual playlists to steadily grow his Spotify monthly listener count to 3.5M
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Thursday April 4th 2019.
    • Charts 
      • What’s going on down under? Checking yesterday’s Shazam daily charts for Sydney, Australia brings us a very pop-oriented selection with the “pop” genre tag coming up 20 times in the top 43 songs.
      • Next most common tag was “Alternative” with seven appearances.
      • Ava Max, Billie Eilish, Dean Lewis and Halsey all appeared the most on the chart, scoring two tracks each, while Dominic Fike’s “3 Nights” took the #1 spot which was released back in October of last year.
      • Lukas Graham’s ballad “Love Someone” and Loud Luxury’s dance hit “Body (feat. Brando)” both tied for the longest time on the Sydney charts at 59 weeks, piquing Australians’ curiosity for over a year now.
      • Taking the #2 spot was a dance remix of “Someone You Loved” by soulful crooner Lewis Capaldi, not to be confused with the Lukas Graham track.
      • And LA-based Ava Max not only takes the #3 spot with “So Am I” but she also has the chart’s entry with the most Shazams globally with “Sweet but Psycho” in the #34 spot at 6.2M.
      • Despite all the happy, pop-oriented English music, Latin boy band CNCO goes back and forth between Spanish and English in the smooth track “Pretend” at the #16 spot. 
      • You can check out our Latin boy band deep dive we did on them with a link in this episode’s notes.
    • Artist Highlight
      • Let’s dig a little deeper into Dominic Fike, who took Sydney’s #1 Shazam chart spot yesterday.
      • If you divide his 3.5M Spotify monthly listeners by his only 29K followers, his listener to follower ratio is a monstrous 120. 
      • To put that in perspective, Drake’s ratio is 1.1 and Ariana Grande’s is just under 2, which might not be the most fair comparison since they are some of the world’s biggest artists and therefore have been overexposed in the playlist ecosystem, but it does help you realize how relatively unknown Fike is, and how much traction he does seem to be getting with those that are in the know.
      • Fike is on 27 Spotify editorial playlists, including a lot of the Swedish platform’s mid-tier ones such as “Mood Booster” at 3.2M follows, “Good Vibes” at 2.2M and “Weekend Hangouts” at 1.3M. This seems to be a common way for emerging artists to plant their earworms into new listeners, via contextual playlists that cater towards what the listener is doing, versus what the music or artist is about. If you’re interested in learning more, check the show notes for our Medium article on it!
      • His track “3 Nights” also made it onto several of Apple’s “Today’s Hits” playlists in the Anglo-centric countries such as the US/Canada/Australia/New Zealand, and have been for about three months each. It also however made it into India’s version as well, maybe looking for a regional crossover.
      • With Shawn Mendes, Billie Eilish and Jacob Sartorius all notable followers on his Instagram profile, Dominic Fike looks like he’s got a bright future ahead of him, and his work cut out.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday April 4th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • If you want to check some of the data yourself, sign up for a free account at chartmetric.io/signup
      • And article links and show notes are at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Friday’s almost here! See you tomorrow.
    4 min
  • 2019-04-03 // UK and US rule the YouTube Music Video chart, new AWAL artist signing and SoulCycle playlisting on Apple Music

     

    • Highlights
      • British and American artists take over the Top 10 YouTube music video charts in the UK
      • AWAL signs a young singer-songwriter with a 100+ listener to follower ratio
      • SoulCycle teams up with singer Ciara to make their latest Apple Music featured playlist
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Wednesday April 3rd 2019.
    • Charts 
      • For the week ending March 28th, the Top 10 YouTube music videos in the United Kingdom were ruled by both the British and the Americans, splitting them in half.
      • British hip-hop producer Steel Banglez took the #1 spot at 1.5M views that week with the smooth video “Fashion Week”, which opened in the #1 spot.
      • Two grime artists, Russ and Tion Wayne, took the #2 spot, on the YouTube channel GRM Daily, which bills itself as the “epicentre of UK urban culture”, which itself has accumulated over 1.7B views.
      • The #3 spot is taken by British MC and producer Wiley, which features none other than actor Idris Elba dropping bars, with the infectious “Boasty” music video. If you’re a fan of Elba’s movie work in Thor, Pacific Rim or The Dark Tower, check out the video which just spent its third week on the chart with just over 1M views.
      • Rounding out the list are Americans Maroon 5, Ava Max and YNW Melly in their own videos, but in a 1-2 UK-US punch at the #9 spot, Sam Smith and ex-Fifth Harmony member Normani star in the beautifully-shot “Dancing with a Stranger” music video.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • On April 1st, Music Business Worldwide announced the signing of British singer-songwriter Millie Turner to AWAL, Kobalt Music’s recorded music services company.
      • Turner is an 18-year-old sporting a relaxed electro-pop sound, which fits the AWAL roster quite nicely, and surely they noticed that despite Turner’s Spotify follower count hovering under a humble 4K, she has over 406K monthly listeners, which gives her a listener to follower ratio of 104, signalling to all algorithms ever made to put her in every playlist imaginable.
      • She only has six tracks released on the major platforms, with a curiously strong focus only on Spotify playlists, as she is only on 5 Apple Music ones and 2 Deezer playlists, while being on 51 of Spotify’s.
      • Turner seems to be slowly growing her exposure, by featuring tracks like “Eyes on You” and “Night Running” on mid-tier playlists like “New Music Friday UK” at 703K followers and “Indie Pop” at 837K.
      • Resonating most in Central to Eastern Europe, she seems to have found quite the following in Istanbul, as she’s increased her monthly listener count from roughly 3K to 23K in the past year, over a 570% increase. Turkish summer tour? We’ll have to wait and see.  
    • Playlist Round-Up 
      • In the latest on the bands and brands front, NYC-based indoor cycling company SoulCycle released the “Sound by SoulCycle x Ciara” playlist.
      • The 15-track Apple Music list runs for 1 hour and 5 minutes and rates in the upper halves of the Echo Nest Energy and Danceability charts, which would perfectly compliment a 60-minute workout that demands you are in high spirits as you get your sweat on.
      • Atlanta-based singer Ciara of course gets the ability to debut her latest single, “Thinkin Bout You”, in the leading playlist spot, and takes 11 of the 15 tracks reaching all the way back to 2004 to her hits like “One, Two Step” feat. Missy Elliott and “Goodies” feat. T.I. and Jazze Pha.
      • Salt-N-Pepa and Kanye West are mixed into the playlist for good measure, so if you’re into the SoulCycle scene and like some old-school hip-hop and RnB, be on the lookout for this one.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday April 3rd 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • If you have any ideas for artists or new segments for the podcast, let us know at [email protected]
      • You can always get links and show notes at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Wednesday, see you tomorrow!
    4 min
  • 2019-04-02 // Apple Music Top Songs chart, NAV on the Billboard 200 album chart and Spotify's "mint" playlist series


    • Highlights
      • Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish and Nipsey Hussle top the Apple Music Top Songs chart yesterday
      • Punjabi-Canadian rapper NAV rules the Billboard 200 album chart
      • Regional mint playlists tap the dance floors around the world
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Tuesday April 2nd 2019.
    • Charts
      • Apple Music’s Top Songs chart yesterday was dominated by three narratives: the viral psuedo-country hit by Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish’s new album “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” and the untimely shooting death of LA rapper Nipsey Hussle.
      • Of the Top 100 songs that charted, LA-based Billie Eilish came away as the most frequently occuring artist on the chart at 16 tracks total. Two of her older songs “lovely” and “Idontwannabeyouanymore” joined all 14 of her new album’s tracks in an impressive show of force on Apple Music.
      • Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X, still managed to take the #1 spot on Apple’s Top Songs chart yesterday, probably in part thanks to the Billboard country chart controversy. Released on Apple only since March 13th, it’s already spent 10 days on the Top Songs chart.
      • Finally, the work of LA artist and community activist Nipsey Hussle, after his fatal shooting in front of his clothing store in South Los Angeles, experienced a surge in listening.
      • Six of Nipsey’s tracks, including collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Puff Daddy, made it into the Top 100 songs chart from positions 18 to 76. Five of those were from his last 2018 album “Victory Lap”, which was Grammy-nominated for Best Rap Album.
      • Nipsey was 33 years young. May he rest in peace.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • Punjabi-Canadian rapper and producer NAV nabbed his first #1 album on the Billboard 200 chart announced on March 31st.
      • The Toronto-native, who has tracks with The Weeknd, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert, also has 1.2M Spotify followers and 8.9M monthly listeners, giving him a very impressive listener to follower ratio of 7.
      • This bodes well for NAV since this suggests repeated listening despite having a relatively lower follower count.
      • NAV’s hometown of Toronto takes fourth place in his most listened-to cities on Spotify, though his rap sound resonates most stateside: namely LA, Chicago, and Dallas. 
      • His Instagram at 1.5M followers is growing at approximately 2.8K daily.
      • His follower base is currently ¾ male and very strong in the 18-24 age range, with Nicki Minaj, Drake and WorldStarHipHop being among his most notable IG followers.
      • If you want to check out NAV’s work, you can find him in the #42 slot on Today’s Top Hits with his track “Price on My Head” (feat. the Weeknd).
    • Playlist Round-Up 
      • If you’re into electronic music, surely you already know about Spotify’s mint playlist at 5.4M followers and the 9th most followed playlist.
      • But do you know about mint Latin? Or mint Canada, mint BR (Brazil), or mint India?
      • Mint Latin for example has 1.8M followers and features “the new wave of Latin Electronic producers and DJs”. It currently has 50 tracks and an average track popularity score of 42 out of 100.
      • If 42 sounds a little low, our Jan 2018 Medium article on the mint playlist discussed how dance music exists in a different space that is more about the hours-long mix, making any single artist or track, well, not as important.
      • Surely this is made clear as mint Latin is a pre-mixed playlist just like its big brother: meaning if you listen from one track to another, a DJ has already made smooth transitions to give you one singular listening experience.
      • So if you’re looking for a frontline-oriented playlist featuring dance sounds from certain regions of the world, look no further.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday April 2nd 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
      • You can always get links to episode sources and additional information at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow!
    4 min
  • 2019-04-01 // Spotify's "Fresh Finds", Marshmello in India and Amazon Music's "All Hits" playlist


    • Highlights
      • Spotify’s Fresh Finds celebrate indie music in our aggregate chart
      • American producer Marshmello sees a 375% increase in Indian YouTube views for his cross-border collaboration
      • Amazon Music’s “All Hits” assumes its place as the tech giant’s flagship playlist
    • Mission
      • Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.
    • Date
      • This is your Data Dump for Monday April 1st 2020. Just joking, it’s still 2019. Happy April Fool’s Day.
    • Charts
      • Once a week, our Spotify Fresh Finds chart aggregates the platform’s eight discovery-oriented playlists. For the chart ending on March 28th, there are 402 tracks total with the dance track “Your Love” by French DJ Mercer being the most playlisted of the bunch at 42.
      • According to Quartz, Spotify’s non-personalized, human-curated playlist series focuses on a designated set of tastemakers that have proven to show high listening activity on unknown tracks before they become popular.
      • For the previous week, Mercer’s dance track appeared on two Fresh Finds playlists: the main one and also the Fresh Finds: Basement playlist, which caters to electronic and dance music fans.
      • The main Fresh Finds playlist features 659K followers and the Basement version features 42K, but with its focus on independent artists/labels, the Fresh Finds series is more about taste-making: the few forecasting tomorrow’s sounds for the many.
      • 114 of the 402 aggregate tracks have 4+ minute durations, no genre tag appears more than 3 times, and labels/distributors such as DistroKid, !K7, Empire and Platoon led the chart with a total of 16 tracks, companies made their reputations as being fiercely indie….so if you’re lacking in the hipster friend department, check out Fresh Finds to fill in the void.
    • Artist Highlight in the News
      • On February 1st, American DJ/producer Marshmello released an India-US collaboration with Mumbai-based composer Pritam entitled “BIBA”, which currently has a Spotify Popularity Index of 72 out of 100, and over 32M views on YouTube.
      • Marshmello’s penchant for innovation has become very clear this year after DJ-ing a live set on the gaming juggernaut that is Fortnite while releasing BIBA at the same time.
      • His 1-2 punch of the Fortnite stream on Feb 2nd directly after the Feb 1st BIBA release caused quite a spike of interest in him, with both his daily Wikipedia views and Instagram followers increasing ten-fold. 
      • However, the strength of BIBA became clear when the official YouTube video released two weeks later on Feb 14th, triggering a 375% increase in daily views in India to 2.1M, and making Indian Instagram followers his second most loyal geographic demo at 9.5%, with his first being the US at 19%.
      • At 10.4M Spotify followers and four times as many monthly listeners at 44.7M, Marshmello’s dynamic career moves are obviously paying off.
    • Playlist Round-Up 
      • “All Hits” seems to be Amazon Music’s #1 playlist, even though there is no follower count publicly displayed. Both within the app and on the browser, it is consistently one of the first playlists you see in the interface.
      • Likely the tech giant’s equivalent to Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” or Apple’s “Today’s Hits”, it has 50 tracks currently and total running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes.
      • In the past month, tracks have been changed out on Wednesday and Thursday by the default platform curator named “Amazon’s Music Experts”, and roughly half the track tags are “pop” naturally with a strong US focus at 77% American artists.
      • “Without Me” from Jersey-born, LA-based singer Halsey occupies the current top spot, the only track of 50 not replaced last week.
      • We’ve got limited data on “All Hits” since Amazon Music is a new data source, but stay tuned for later updates as the Alexa-driven platform will only continue to grow the #3 most subscribed to streaming platform in the world.
    • Outro
      • That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday April 1st 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric, if you’re enjoying the podcast, share it with a colleague.
      • If you missed a detail, you can always get full show notes at: chartmetric.transistor.fm/episodes.
      • Happy Monday, see you tomorrow!
    5 min

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