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[danG]

Happy new year!

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

FAQs

What is streaming? What are the chart rules regarding streaming?
For streaming and chart rules related FAQs read this thread.

How many streams 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. 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.

How much does streaming contribute to the chart?
Streaming contributes over 90% to the singles chart as a whole. Spotify counts for at least half of this, with Apple Music and Amazon also big contributors. YouTube is also big however most of YouTube's streams are at the free tier so won't count for as much.

Why is my fave not doing well?
Is it being promoted on a major curated playlist, and/or going viral on TikTok? If it isn't, it's unlikely to really take off! Hot Hits UK is the biggest of these playlists on Spotify from a UK standpoint. 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 releases, such as the recent album impacts from Drake and Taylor Swift.

Spotify

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. For the full top 200, use the link below to go to Spotify's website. You can also use the Kworb website which displays the data in an easier to read format and also contains additional information, however this is often out of date.

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

What are the most influential Spotify playlists?
Links to Spotify's top playlists are as below.



How often does the Spotify chart update?
It should update once every day, usually in the early afternoon - although on occasion there will be a delay.

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.

Apple Music

How do I see today's Apple Music chart?
You can use the link below to view the Apple Music top 100 through Kworb. If you have Apple Music, you can also view the top 200 by going to the Charts section and clicking on See All in the Top Songs section.

Kworb [top 100]

What are the most influential Apple Music playlists?
Links to Apple Music's top playlists are as below.



How often does the Apple Music chart update?
It like iTunes updates on a regular basis a number of times a day. No streaming figures are provided however, unlike Spotify.

Amazon

How do I see today's Amazon Music chart?
You can use the link below to view the Amazon Music chart.

Amazon Music

How often does the Amazon Music chart update?
It like iTunes updates on a regular basis a number of times a day. No streaming figures are provided however, unlike Spotify.

[FAQs written by Dan]

Spotify/streaming discussion thread archive
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