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[danG]

Happy new year! This is the streaming services thread for January 2021, the go-to topic for the discussion of playlists and charts from services such as Spotify, Apple & Amazon!

Spotify FAQs

What is streaming? What are the chart rules regarding streaming?

For streaming and chart rules related FAQs read this thread.

How do I see today's Spotify chart?

To see the daily top 50 update on desktop, log in to Spotify, click 'Browse', then click 'Charts', then click 'United Kingdom Top 50', or click the link below. The desktop top 50 may update before anything else so is always worth checking if the website is not up to date. However recently it has been known to not to do (even when the website has), so do check all sources. Also note that the Spotify Website will update before external websites (Kworb, LivePopBars). Occasionally there will be a delay in the Spotify chart updating which could even take days.

Useful web links:

Spotify App [top 50]
Spotify Website [top 200]
Kworb [top 200 and extra data]
LivePopBars [top 200]
SponOnTrack [top 200]

Hot playlist links:



How often does the chart update?

It should update once every day, usually in the early afternoon - although this is not 100% guaranteed. Sometimes the top 200 on the website will update but without the top 50 on the app updating, and sometimes there will be no update at all.

How many plays on Spotify equals one download sale?

100 plays if you are on Spotify Premium, or 600 if you are using the ad-supported free tier. However you cannot simply play a song that many times in one day to give it one sale, you are limited to 10 plays per day in terms of what counts to the chart. (Spotify will let you play a song on repeat 600 times if you really want to).

The number changes to 200 or 1200 plays when a song moves to ACR. For more information on the rules of ACR see this thread. For information on what songs are currently on ACR and what songs will be moving to ACR, refer to this thread.

How much does Spotify contribute to the chart?

Streaming contributes over 90% to the singles chart as a whole, although the #1 still can be decided by who has better paid-for sales. Spotify counts for a good chunk of streaming sales (although it appears to be losing some market share as Apple Music and Amazon Music gain in popularity), so doing well on Spotify is essential for doing well in the chart.

Why is my fave not doing well on Spotify?

Is it being promoted on one of Spotify's major curated playlists? If it isn't, it's unlikely to really take off! Hot Hits UK is the biggest of these playlists, with over a million followers. The playlist usually updates itself to include breaking hits once or twice a week, though there is no guarantee that your fave will get a place on the playlist. Also, the UK Top 50 is a largely followed playlist and that songs often experience a 'top 50 effect', when they enter the top 50 and get the additional exposure of being on the playlist.

Often sales hits don't cross over to being streaming hits, this is usually the case for songs with an older target audience, reality or campaign songs. Also keep in mind that it often takes longer for a song to take off on Spotify than it would on iTunes.

My fave didn't debut high and is falling already, does this mean they're flopping?

Not necessarily. Most songs debut relatively low as they aren't instantly well-known, and experience a sharp decline on Day 2 as they no longer have the promoted 'New Music Friday' effect. A lot of songs manage to recover through gaining popularity and additions to playlists. Exceptions to the rule of course come from massively hyped artists/releases such as Justin Bieber/Ed Sheeran/Drake who will of course enter straight at the top.

What do the numbers mean?

The streaming figures cited in the daily chart are the number of streams each song received the previous day. Unlike the iTunes chart, Spotify is not a rolling chart so the numbers will only change once per day.

[FAQs written by Dan]

Spotify/streaming discussion thread archive
2021: Jan
2020: Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec
2019: Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec
2018: Jan-Mar • Mar-May • May-Jun • Jun-Sep • Sep-Oct • Nov • Dec
2017: Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct-Dec
2016: Jan-Jun • Jun-Oct • Oct-Dec
2015: Jan-Oct • Oct-Dec
2014: Jun-Dec