Posted March 14, 201213 yr http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog...al-streams.html Billboard, the publisher of the Hot 100 singles and other music charts, will be incorporating spins from on-demand streams from services such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Muve, MOG, Slacker and Rdio in determining which songs top its charts. It will also publish a new chart for top on-demand streaming tunes, with the first chart debuting Wednesday. The charts will rely on data from Nielsen, which has been tracking digital music streams since 2005, but had not publicly shared the information. In the first 70 days of this year, Nielsen said it captured 4.5 billion audio streams -- 625 million of those in the last week, up from 494 million during the week that ended March 4. Nielsen does not track Pandora, which does not provide data to Nielsen on its personalized radio streaming service to more than 20 million users. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...=googlenews_wsj Billboard magazine's Hot 100 songs chart is getting a digital makeover, though readers might not notice much of a difference when the weekly list is released on Wednesday. The trade magazine, or the "bible" as it is known within the music industry, says it will now include data from streaming-music sites and subscription-music services such as Spotify AB, Rhapsody International Inc. and Rdio Inc. to its calculations of a song's popularity. The new data will supplement radio-airplay ratings and digital song sales that currently define the chart. Billboard Editorial Director Bill Werde said in an interview that the magazine decided to update its charts now because the current generation of music-streaming services "have only recently hit a critical mass" among users. http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BS868_CHART_NS_20120313180603.jpg 625 million on-demand streams last week at $0.005 per stream, that is the equivalent of $3.125 million or ~ 3 million MP3 sold per week. Each week, about 25-28 million MP3 are sold. My guess at this NEW Hot 100 calculation 1 download = 200 on-demand streams = 1,000 radio audience Edited March 14, 201213 yr by Dust2
March 14, 201213 yr Author http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...=googlenews_wsj Billboard has generated test charts in recent weeks, letting its editors compare their charts with and without the new data. The differences are subtle, with the streaming data boosting certain songs in the rankings. The effect is most notable on electronic dance-music songs, which don't get much radio airplay and tend to attract younger listeners who may not bother buying songs from Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store. For the week ended March 4, songs by two popular electronic acts—M83 and Skrillex—would have made it into the lower reaches of the Hot 100 if streaming-music data had been counted, but they didn't appear in the chart as published in Billboard. Still, those songs' theoretical positions—No. 77 and No. 85, respectively—highlight that the new chart represents a tweak, not an overhaul. Otherwise, the ranking changes are mostly subtle shifts up or down a few notches. In the most recent week, none of the top four songs would have been affected. Mr. Werde noted that people tend to gravitate to the same songs, whether they are buying them, renting them or listening to the radio. "People really like hits," he said. For now, the new chart doesn't include several popular online destinations including Google Inc.'s YouTube, the video-streaming site that is effectively the Web's most widely used on-demand music service thanks to its trove of millions of music videos. Both Billboard's Mr. Werde and a YouTube spokeswoman said the two sides are working on a way to add the video site's data. Edited March 14, 201213 yr by Dust2
March 14, 201213 yr Didn't the Hot 100 already count streams? :unsure: "Mr. Werde noted that people tend to gravitate to the same songs, whether they are buying them, renting them or listening to the radio." Well WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT that the most bought and streamed songs are roughly the same as the songs people are hearing the most on the radio :huh: I like how this sentence also seems to imply that people choose the songs they hear on the radio. They 'gravitate' to a station and its general musical preference, not the individual songs that station plays. Edited March 14, 201213 yr by Bré
March 15, 201213 yr If u look at the On demand chart for this week, it's mostly dominated by R&b and hip hop, which I think was the main reason behind adding streaming into the Hot 100, to block the new dominance by UK pop and dance music.... Same thing happened in the late 90's when UK pop acts such as Spice Girls, All Saints and Five were scorin huge hits in the States, they decided to increase the airplay effect on the Hot 100 which led to all these songs falling off the charts quickly the next week....
March 15, 201213 yr Author If u look at the On demand chart for this week, it's mostly dominated by R&b and hip hop, which I think was the main reason behind adding streaming into the Hot 100, to block the new dominance by UK pop and dance music.... Same thing happened in the late 90's when UK pop acts such as Spice Girls, All Saints and Five were scorin huge hits in the States, they decided to increase the airplay effect on the Hot 100 which led to all these songs falling off the charts quickly the next week.... http://www.billboard.com/news/fun-s-we-are...006455972.story We Are Young #1 with 1.1 million on-demand streams Somebody that I used to know #2 with 776,000 . . Glad You Came #7 with 472,000 on-demand streams favor alternative
March 15, 201213 yr Billboard, Nielsen, DigitalMusic.org Launch First-Ever Subscription Services 'On-Demand Songs' Chart March 14, 2012 By Billboard staff Billboard, Nielsen and NARM's digitalmusic.org announced today the launch of the first-ever subscription services "On-Demand Songs" chart, and that this data will also be included in the Billboard Hot 100. On-demand streaming data is now factored into the chart's ranking, enhancing a formula that includes digital download track sales and physical singles sales, as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan; as well as radio airplay and other streaming services, as tracked by Nielsen BDS. This new Billboard chart, in coordination with digitalmusic.org's Subscription Music Work Group, and powered by Nielsen BDS, which began tracking streaming activity in 2005, measures every on-demand play request and plays from unlimited listener-controlled radio channels on MOG, Muve Music, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker and Spotify; data from Zune and Sony Music Unlimited is expected to be added in the coming weeks. The plays tracked for the On-Demand Songs chart include streams and tethered downloads by both paying and free/trial tier users. Through the first 70 days of 2012, Nielsen BDS has captured more than 4.5. billion audio streams. "Billboard always recognizes trends in the way fans experience music. With some of these services growing exponentially and integrating into the social web, the time is right to launch a streaming chart and to incorporate this activity into the Hot 100," said Bill Werde, Billboard's editorial director. "Nielsen has been capturing streaming data since 2005 when the impact of digital music consumption was clear," said Chris Muratore, VP, Merchant Services & Emerging Growth for Entertainment, Nielsen. "As our relationships have grown to include most of the largest music streaming services in the business, we have measured an all-time weekly high of more than 625 million total streams in the past week alone. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Billboard and partners like NARM to provide the most comprehensive measurement and analysis for the industry and our clients." "The last year has seen an explosion of both subscribers and traffic to music subscription services, and the business is now contributing meaningfully to the music industry's growing digital music revenues. This chart marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the music subscription business," said Bill Wilson, VP of Business Development and Digital Strategy, NARM/digitalmusic.org. "The new Billboard chart is the definitive endorsement of the importance of the music subscription market and, as Nielsen continues to track tremendous growth, its influence can only become more important in the future." The number and types of outlets that people utilize to consume music continues to grow, and due to the rise of so many user-based platforms, the impact consumers have also continues to increase. Never in the 50-plus year history of the Hot 100 has a music fan had more of an influence on the chart's rankings as they do today. "The methodology behind all of the Billboard charts is ever-evolving to incorporate new technologies and the emerging ways consumers listen to and buy music" said Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard's director of charts. "Accounting for an interactive medium such as streaming, both in the Hot 100 chart and the On-Demand Songs chart, provides an even more accurate gauge of the songs that are truly the most popular in the country." The Hot 100 formula, in addition to tracking terrestrial radio and digital track sales, will now account for the streaming data that makes up the On-Demand Songs chart, as well as non-demand radio streams from Rhapsody and Slacker. The chart rankings will also measure plays on video request service Akoo and audio on-demand streams from MySpace and Guvera. Yahoo! radio streams and Yahoo! on-demand video plays, which were previously part of the Hot 100 formula, will continue to contribute to the chart's ranking. The streaming data is provided to and processed by Nielsen BDS, which provides music research and monitoring services for the entertainment industry. The first-ever No. 1 atop On-Demand Songs belongs to New York act Fun. and its hit "We Are Young," featuring Janelle Monae, with a total of 1.1 million streams, according to Nielsen BDS. The track also tops the re-formatted Billboard Hot 100 for a second consecutive week. The rest of the On-Demand Songs top five are as follows: "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra, "Rack City" by Tyga, "N---as In Paris" by Jay-Z & Kanye West and "Take Care" by Drake featuring Rihanna. Each of those songs posts a better ranking on this week's Hot 100 than it would have had the chart not undergone this week's addition of greater streaming data. For instance, Gotye's track ranks at No. 5 on the Hot 100, instead of No. 8, while the Drake/Rihanna collaboration re-enters the top 10 at a new peak of No. 7; it would have remained outside the top 10 under the old formula. Other notable titles on the On-Demand Songs chart that are outperforming their sales rankings and airplay placements on the Hot 100's main component charts (Digital Songs and Radio Songs) include Tyga's "Rack City," Big Sean's "Dance (A$$)" and Avicii's "Levels." The addition of streaming data to the Hot 100 thusly boosts these songs' standings on that chart, as evidenced by the No. 15 rank for Tyga (instead of No. 18), the No. 40 rank for Big Sean (instead of No. 52) and the No. 66 rank for Avicii (instead of No. 80). Moreover, artists such as M83 at No. 74 (with "Midnight City"), and Skrillex at No. 83 (with "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"), debut and re-enter, respectively, on the Hot 100 primarily due to the influx of data from the newly incorporated streaming services. Also, a prior established hit, "You Da One" by Rihanna (No. 31 on On-Demand Songs), moves 97-76 on this week's Hot 100, whereas it would have fallen off the chart if the list's methodology had not been changed. Other recent updates to the Billboard charts include the launch of the Social 50 chart that measures artist engagement activity on Facebook, Twitter and other leading social networks and Uncharted, a ranking of top artists yet to land on another major Billboard chart that is also based on activity on social and streaming platforms. The updated Hot 100 and the new On-Demand Songs chart will be available on Billboard.com and Billboard.biz tomorrow morning (March 15) and will be featured in the March 24 issue of Billboard magazine, which hits newsstands on March 16. The On-Demand Songs chart will also be featured each week on www.digitalmusic.org. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/di...006451952.story
March 15, 201213 yr I imagine it will also help the tween/Disney Channel pop stars. Acts like Justin Bieber who can rack up hundreds of millions of youtube views in a few months but never really have hit singles because radio generally ignores them and the fans may be too young to buy tracks en masse.
March 15, 201213 yr http://www.billboard.com/news/fun-s-we-are...006455972.story We Are Young #1 with 1.1 million on-demand streams Somebody that I used to know #2 with 776,000 . Glad You Came #7 with 472,000 on-demand streams favor alternative But the rest of the top 20 is mostly made up of rap/hip hop tunes which proves my theory....
March 15, 201213 yr From the Hot 100 report: "Additionally, the Hot 100's sales/airplay ratio has been adjusted to both accommodate the influx of additional streaming services to the chart's data pool and to slightly lessen the influence of sales, as the volume of digital downloads had increased exponentially since the chart's last formula modification in 2007." I don't have any problem with them including streaming data as it is a genuine measure of popularity which is fair enough, but seriously Billboard, what is the point of LESSENING the influence of sales? :wacko:
March 15, 201213 yr Just because the streaming chart Top 20 is "dominated by R&B and hip-hop" this week, that won't necessarily be the case in the future. And the suggestion that Billboard is doing this on purpose (again) to "block the dominance of UK pop and dance acts" is ridiculous (data from one week doesn't prove a theory). Billboard is adjusting its chart methodology to better incorporate how Americans are listening to their favorite songs, not because Billboard executives had a meeting and decided that a specific group of artists was surging in popularity and needed to be stopped. In the late 1998, Billboard decided to allow "airplay-only" songs to chart on the Hot 100. Until that time, a song had to be available in at least one physical format as a single in order to qualify for the Hot 100. From around 1993/4 to 1998, some artists would not release a physical single of their latest hit to force people to buy the album. This resulted in some very popular songs never appearing on the Hot 100 (for example, "Don't Speak" by No Doubt spent 4 months at #1 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, but never appeared on the official Hot 100 because no physical single was released). Billboard changed its policy in late 1998 (several years too late, in my opinion) so that the Hot 100 would better reflect what songs were most popular. In 1991, Billboard started using Soundscan to collect more accurate airplay data (previously, radio stations would send Billboard a ranked list of their most popular songs every week), which meant the airplay component better reflected what a radio station played (and who was listening when it was played). Was this also done to spite UK pop and dance acts??? Billboard has adjusted its methodology for creating its various music charts several times in the 100+ years the magazine has existed. The 1960s British Invasion didn't lead to chart changes that lessened the impact of The Beatles and Herman's Hermits on the Hot 100, nor did the surge of UK acts that hit the Hot 100 in the 1980s. Specifically regarding the Spice Girls, while the three singles from the first album had great airplay and sales in the first half of 1997 (and all peaked in the Top 5), the three singles from Spiceworld had good sales but only decent airplay (and all peaked in the Top 20) because some of the novelty had worn off. In the spring of 1998, "Stop" reached #16, a far cry from the 5 weeks at #1 by "Wannabe" in early 1997. Musical tastes, and the ways people listen to and purchases music, are continually changing, and Billboard is doing its best to accurately reflect those changes. For your one piece of evidence supporting your theory, there is a mountain of evidence showing that Billboard, over the past 100+ years, doesn't make changes to chart methodology just to punish a specific type of music from a specific part of the world.
March 15, 201213 yr To be honest, I wish the Digital Songs chart was viewed as the *main* US chart. :(
March 15, 201213 yr To be honest, I wish the Digital Songs chart was viewed as the *main* US chart. :( Ditto. I'm a sales purist but apparently Billboard has been obsessed with airplay since 1958. Even Kylie could have had an official US #1 if the chart was sales-based only with "The Locomotion".
March 16, 201213 yr Streaming added to Hot 100 chart Source: MW 15:31 | Wednesday March 14, 2012 By Paul Williams The Billboard Hot 100 this week features data from music subscription services for the first time, while a stand-alone On-Demand Songs chart has also been launched. The new streaming chart takes in every on-demand play request and plays from services such as MOG, Muve Muve, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker and Spotify, while Data from Zune and Sony Music Unlimited is expected to be added in the coming weeks. New York band fun top the first-ever On-Demand chart with We Are Young featuring Janelle Monae, which recorded 1.1 million streams last week, according to Nielsen BDS. It also remains at number one on the newly-configured flagship Hot 100, which from this week onwards will now be compiled from a mixture of digital download and physical sales data from Nielsen SoundScan and radio airplay and streaming data tracked by Nielsen BDS. Also in the first-ever On-Demand Songs top five are Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye featuring Kimbra, Rack City by Tyga, Ni**as In Paris by Jay-Z and Kanye West and Take Care by Rihanna by Drake featuring Rihanna. Meanwhile, the addition of streaming data to the Hot 100 has had an impact on the shape of the chart with the Tyga track, for example, placed at number 15 this week. Without streaming data being included it would have been in 18th position. Similarly, Big Sean is 40th instead of 52 and Avicii 66 rather than 80. The new chart has been launched by Billboard and Nielsen in conjunction with the National Association of Recording Merchandisers’ (NARM) digitalmusic.org. Its roll-out and changes to the Hot 100 follow Nielsen BDS beginning to track streaming activity in 2005. In the first 70 days of this year it tracked more than 4.5 billion audio streams. Billboard editorial director Bill Werde said: “Billboard always recognises trends in the way fans experience music. With some of these services growing exponentially and integrating into the social web, the time is right to launch a streaming chart and to incorporate this activity into the Hot 100.” Nielsen’s vice president of merchants services and emerging growth for entertainment Chris Muratore said Nielsen began capturing streaming data in 2005 when the impact of digital music consumption was clear. “As our relationships have grown to include most of the largest music streaming services in the business, we have measured an all-time weekly high of more than 625 million total streams in the past week alone. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Billboard and partners like NARM to provide the most comprehensive measurement and analysis for the industry and our clients,” he added. NARM/digitalmusic.org business development and digital strategy VP Bill Wilson described the new chart as “a significant milestone in the evolution of the music subscription business”. “The new Billboard chart is the definitive endorsement of the importance of the music subscription market and, as Nielsen continues to track tremendous growth, its influence can only become more important in the future,” he added
March 16, 201213 yr If u look at the On demand chart for this week, it's mostly dominated by R&b and hip hop, which I think was the main reason behind adding streaming into the Hot 100, to block the new dominance by UK pop and dance music.... Same thing happened in the late 90's when UK pop acts such as Spice Girls, All Saints and Five were scorin huge hits in the States, they decided to increase the airplay effect on the Hot 100 which led to all these songs falling off the charts quickly the next week.... That arguement doesn't make sense imo, when you look at other things Billboard did with the charts. Not to mention, if you remember back to 2005, there was that minor media uproar about the fact that EVERY artist that got to #1 in the US in 2004 was black US-based artists, and then SUDDENLY, Billboard announces that they'll include digital sales in the charts (not that it made much difference to the domination of RnB at the time, since the first songs to sell 1 million downloads were Hollaback Girl and Candy Shop :lol:) and that they'll make a seperate chart for pop songs. Now that was obviously because of the media attention over the "all black" 2004 #1s. The same way that Billboard coincidentally changed its rules to let old songs re-enter the chart when Whitney passed away. It was obviously because of Whitney they decided to do that. I don't think they can be biased towards a favourite genre, because they've changed rules over time to hurt and help most mainstream genres. The only thing I could perhaps argue is that they change the rules to prevent one genre from dominating too much (which was a case with RnB in 2004 and electropop in 2011). So basically, I don't think they're really trying to hurt UK pop, since they changed their rules to help it in the past. They're probably trying to balance it out, or simply not taking into account how UK pop does in the charts at all when making these decisions.
March 18, 201213 yr That arguement doesn't make sense imo, when you look at other things Billboard did with the charts. I don't think they can be biased towards a favourite genre, because they've changed rules over time to hurt and help most mainstream genres. The only thing I could perhaps argue is that they change the rules to prevent one genre from dominating too much (which was a case with RnB in 2004 and electropop in 2011). So basically, I don't think they're really trying to hurt UK pop, since they changed their rules to help it in the past. They're probably trying to balance it out, or simply not taking into account how UK pop does in the charts at all when making these decisions. i don't think electro pop is dominating at the moment, it's only beginning to appear in the US charts... while R&B/Hip hop songs have been dominating charts for more than 20 years now, the eletcro pop phenomenon has just appeared a few months ago... and YES.... to be honest, the On-Demand chart is completely dominated by US R&B/hip hop songs bar certain other pop hits, Drake & Lil'Wayne have together 12 out of the 50 songs on that chart, enough said..... :lol: this change just comes at a time when One Direction & The Wanted are to be competing for a number 1 single spot soon, it's not a coincidence , just like they changed the rules one day after Whitney's death. the Billboard Chart always has its way of preventing foreign acts from dominating the chart and that's a fact, just like they did in the late 90's....
March 18, 201213 yr Just because the streaming chart Top 20 is "dominated by R&B and hip-hop" this week, that won't necessarily be the case in the future. And the suggestion that Billboard is doing this on purpose (again) to "block the dominance of UK pop and dance acts" is ridiculous (data from one week doesn't prove a theory). maybe not but it gives you an idea of what's there to come and which musical genre streaming is helping.... and we can all tell it's R&B/hip hop.... Billboard is adjusting its chart methodology to better incorporate how Americans are listening to their favorite songs, not because Billboard executives had a meeting and decided that a specific group of artists was surging in popularity and needed to be stopped. and why suddenly they decided to do it now??? In 1991, Billboard started using Soundscan to collect more accurate airplay data (previously, radio stations would send Billboard a ranked list of their most popular songs every week), which meant the airplay component better reflected what a radio station played (and who was listening when it was played). Was this also done to spite UK pop and dance acts??? it's a known fact that UK acts were not getting any airplay during the 90's & 2000's, huge UK acts tried to break it Stateside but their success was halted by the fact that they were not played by US radio (eg: Robbie Williams, Sugababes, Steps, Blur & many others) For your one piece of evidence supporting your theory, there is a mountain of evidence showing that Billboard, over the past 100+ years, doesn't make changes to chart methodology just to punish a specific type of music from a specific part of the world. they are not punishing it, they are just preventing it from competing with home-grown acts.... Edited March 18, 201213 yr by Big Mistake
March 18, 201213 yr i don't think electro pop is dominating at the moment, it's only beginning to appear in the US charts... while R&B/Hip hop songs have been dominating charts for more than 20 years now, the eletcro pop phenomenon has just appeared a few months ago... and YES.... to be honest, the On-Demand chart is completely dominated by US R&B/hip hop songs bar certain other pop hits, Drake & Lil'Wayne have together 12 out of the 50 songs on that chart, enough said..... :lol: this change just comes at a time when One Direction & The Wanted are to be competing for a number 1 single spot soon, it's not a coincidence , just like they changed the rules one day after Whitney's death. the Billboard Chart always has its way of preventing foreign acts from dominating the chart and that's a fact, just like they did in the late 90's.... RnB has been pretty much absent from the charts in the past few years. Hip hop has still been big, but it still did a lot worse in 2008-2012 than it did during 2003-2007. The electropop phenomenon did not appear a few months ago. It's true that a few years ago there was almost no electropop in the charts, but that type of music has been growing in popularity for years (since 2005 I'd say, which is coincidentally when they included digital downloads, and possibly WHY they did). Infact, I think it's already peaked and is now declining in popularity (before they included the streaming last week, so it's not to do with that, I think everybody is just getting bored of it and more interested in Adele, fun., Tyga, etc.). Not to mention, Adele is a UK pop artist and in the top 10 with a song released in 2010, so anything is possible imo. maybe not but it gives you an idea of what's there to come and which musical genre streaming is helping.... and we can all tell it's R&B/hip hop.... To be fair, I agree with you on that point. Whilst Gotye and fun. are the top 2, those are "current" songs. The #3 and #4 are Niggas in Paris and Rack City. Both songs which have come and gone in the US in terms of popularity. They were popular last Winter. I suspect if the On-Demand chart went back that far, both those songs would've been #1 in it back then. Edited March 18, 201213 yr by Eric_Blob
March 18, 201213 yr Not to mention, Adele is a UK pop artist and in the top 10 with a song released in 2010, so anything is possible imo. right , but her last 3 songs are nowhere to be seen in the top 50, which led to the huge drop for 'Rumour has it'.... besides Tyga, Jay Z & kanye , Drake & Lil Wayne are all occupying the On Demand Chart with some OLDER tracks of theirs which means that these songs have been a lot higher in the charts a few weeks back....
April 4, 201213 yr In THIS CASE, I endorse the lessened effect of sales :kink: I choose to selectively not count Bieber as a 'real' #1.
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