Music

A New Era in Music Charts

Music charts are the metrics by which the music industry determines winners and losers.  They also provide fans a chance to root for their favourite artists and to shout down those they don’t like.

It used to be fairly easy to determine chart action.  Positions were determined by sales of singles and albums and mated with how often songs got played on the radio.  

But with the Internet, all that has changed.  There are other things that determine the popularity of a song or album:  YouTube plays; sharing on P2P networks; video plays; Facebook shares; tweets; digital download sales.  And now that services like Slacker, Rdio, Pandora, MOG, Rhapsody, Spotify and similar products taking off, it’s become important to track was songs are being streamed.

This has prompted Billboard to launch the new On-Demand Songs chart.  Yes, they’ve been tracking streaming since 2005, but up until now that data hasn’t been significant enough to warrant its own chart. 

Given that in the first 70 days of this year, more than 4.5 billion audio streams have been measured, it’s probably about time, no?

And the first song to top this new chart?  “We Are Young” by fun. featuring Janelle Monae.

 

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37937 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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