In 5 years' time streaming may become so dominant that the very idea of converting streaming points into a 'sale' will seem hopelessly archaic. The year's most popular tracks will be measured in the tens or even hundreds of millions of streams. What genuine sales that do occur we will think of as being converted into streaming points at the rate of 100 points per sale, or whatever ratio exists at that time. The idea of a 'million seller' will become redundant.

 

It is only at the moment as we go through the transition period when both concepts are running in parallel that everything is a bit messy.

 

I don't think so - ISTM streaming will always be converted to sales-equivalent, otherwise how could comparisons be made with pre-streaming songs?

:o

 

Does this strike fear into anyone else's heart?

 

Yes. *Mine*

However I am only trying to be realistic here. This isn't what I want to happen, it's what I think will almost certainly happen in the long run.

 

I don't think so - ISTM streaming will always be converted to sales-equivalent, otherwise how could comparisons be made with pre-streaming songs?

 

Obviously some kind of correlation between new and pre-streaming tracks can always be made but as streaming becomes more dominant this will become ever more theoretical. Consider a time when 99%+ of music is accessed via streaming. Does 100 million streams equate to 1 million sales under the old system? Who knows, and we never can know.

 

I don't think it will be too many years before the term 'million seller' won't be used any more as nothing really 'sells' much anymore in the old-fashioned download sense, rather we will be talking about '100 million streamers'.

Edited June 6, 201510 yr by Col1967

This sure is killing any remaining enjoyment from the charts.

This sure is killing any remaining enjoyment from the charts.

 

Nothing to do with the music in them being mostly awful, then? :P