• Highlights  
  • When was the last time you got your face melted with some heavy metal? Well, distributor TuneCore says it was probably during 2018 and American alt-metal group Tool says it’s right now on the Billboard 200 chart.
• 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.
  • Chartmetric’s social media handle is Chartmetric, no “S ”- follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook- we’re always posting cool music tidbits for your knowledge! And here’s more.
• Date
  • This is your Data Dump for Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019.
• Tool, Metal’s Growth, and the Future of the Album
  • Yesterday, digital distributor TuneCore released some Q1 2019 statistics stating that $83M USD was earned by its artists, bringing their total distribution revenue to over $1.5B all-time.
  • However, one of its finer details caught the eye of some music outlets like Consequence of Sound: the Heavy metal genre sported a 154% increase in streams and downloads in 2018, outdoing the next four genres J-Pop at a 133%, R&B/Soul at 68% and K-Pop at 58%.
  • While the 2018 data might feel a little outdated, how about this week of September 14th, when American alternative metal band Tool debuted in the #1 Billboard 200 album chart like they were a Billie Eilish / Drake super-group. 
    • Tool’s new album “Fear Inoculum” breaks all of the pop and hip-hop’s rules, as it was 13 years in the making for the progressive metal act and according to Billboard:
      • “...a now-rare example of a No. 1 album without…” a concert redemption offer, pre-order promotion, or merchandise bundle.
    • Tool amazingly relegated Taylor Swift’s “Lover” album to the #2 slot on the Billboard chart, and the band is currently ranked 679th overall according to Chartmetric’s Cross-Platform Performance ranking as of yesterday.
    • Tool’s Neighboring Artists who are ranked similarly include Reggaeton artist Arcangel, Pop crooner Alec Benjamin and Rap duo Rae Sremmurd.
  • Now given Tool’s smashing album success this week, you’d expect to see them similarly trouncing their fellow artists with similar music metrics.
    • However, the opposite is the case: Tool only wields 830K Spotify followers, while Rae Sremmurd has over 5.1M and Arcangel has over 3.8M.
    • Similarly, both artists also trounce Tool with regard to Spotify Monthly Listeners -- the rap and reggaeton stars are collecting almost 11M unique streamers on the Swedish platform while Tool only has half that.
  • But that’s why it’s important to take into account more hits-driven artists vs. album-driven artists: Tool’s fans have long known they don’t go by industry rules and that’s part of why they love them.
    • Six of the new album’s ten tracks clock in over 10 minutes each and the packaged CD released with a 4-inch HD screen inside of it to play its visual arts-driven music videos to their fans that bought it.
  • So while no single Tool songs are appearing on Apple Music or Amazon track charts, the album sits at No. 14 on Apple’s Album charts and leading their Rock one. 
    • They also take No. 17 on Amazon’s Album charts and No. 1 on its Rock chart.
    • This breaks the normal correlation between each platform’s track and album charts...which just goes to show that Tool is doing things their way, in a big way.
  • As most music markets continue to digitize away from the physical world, Tool is showing that while the album format still has its charms, they are likely also benefitting from a   rising tide where metal fans are digitizing themselves.

Outro

• That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.
• Free accounts are available at chartmetric.com 
• And article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com
• Happy Wednesday, and we’ll see you on Friday!