That's a bit crazy. If I am a premium Spotify user I thought whatever I listen to would count, whether that's online or offline.

I just thought my offline streams might count when I go back online and maybe then apply the 10 listens per day rule, or whatever!

Another thought - streaming makes it harder to judge fanbase size.

 

e.g. If you're JB with 5,000,000 streams a week, there's no way of telling if that's 71,500 fans downloading 70 times a week, or 500,000 fans listening 10 times. :unsure:

^ that's very true about fanbase sizes

 

Also if an album builds up streaming point of 0.9 (for example) by the end of a week are those points carried forward to the next week when it reaches a sale of 1 copy. Or would the points of 0.9 cancel back to zero at the start of a new week?

 

I hope that question makes sense!

^ that's very true about fanbase sizes

 

Also if an album builds up streaming point of 0.9 (for example) by the end of a week are those points carried forward to the next week when it reaches a sale of 1 copy. Or would the points of 0.9 cancel back to zero at the start of a new week?

 

I hope that question makes sense!

 

I *think* I understand it but correct me if I'm wrong! So if an album has 0.9 sales in one week, it doesn't get carried forward, it counts to the week it was streamed in. The sales figures given out by Music Week are rounded chart sales - they actually go into decimals, particularly in the streaming era, it's how most ties are broken if they occur. It then resets to zero for the next week!

I *think* I understand it but correct me if I'm wrong! So if an album has 0.9 sales in one week, it doesn't get carried forward, it counts to the week it was streamed in. The sales figures given out by Music Week are rounded chart sales - they actually go into decimals, particularly in the streaming era, it's how most ties are broken if they occur. It then resets to zero for the next week!

 

That does answer my question! Thank you!

But it's might be a little unfair. Just say an (unpopular) album is getting a sale of 0.5 EVERY week, it's streaming sales would always remain at zero becaus it might never reach a sale of '1' within a particular week.

 

Obviously my scenario about is just an example. Of course bringing sales to the level of decimal places is not very important.

Edited December 24, 20159 yr by diamondtooth

Seems like the best place to ask - I'm currently listening to the continuous mix of Madonna's Confessions on a Dancefloor on Spotify, but it's more like an hour-long full song than an album, so does this have a streaming total that is separate to the streams of the actual album, and do you still only need to listen to 30 seconds worth of it for it to count as a stream, despite being an hour long?

I *think* I understand it but correct me if I'm wrong! So if an album has 0.9 sales in one week, it doesn't get carried forward, it counts to the week it was streamed in. The sales figures given out by Music Week are rounded chart sales - they actually go into decimals, particularly in the streaming era, it's how most ties are broken if they occur. It then resets to zero for the next week!

 

Ok let's say an albums stream sales are 35.7 one week then 20.6 the next, is that 55 'sales' or 56 'sales' after the 2 weeks? Do they add the decimal sales together week after week?

Ok let's say an albums stream sales are 35.7 one week then 20.6 the next, is that 55 'sales' or 56 'sales' after the 2 weeks? Do they add the decimal sales together week after week?

Yes, the decimal sales will count towards the overall total. The OCC always report whole numbers, probably because reporting sales of, for example, 145,683.2 would confuse people.

Are the totals displayed in Spotify for tracks streamed more than 30 seconds or do they include tracks played for less than 30 seconds in their totals? Then OCC filters them out.

 

From OCC this week.

Official albums streaming chart Top 200

Pos LW Title Peak WOC

5 New THE BEATLES (WHITE) 5 1 (2,825 streams)

6 New 1 6 1

13 New 1967-1970 13 1

15 New YELLOW SUBMARINE - SONGTRACK 15 1

16 New THE BEATLES BOOTLEG RECORDINGS 1963 16 1

20 New THE BEATLES IN MONO 20 1

23 New ABBEY ROAD 23 1

26 New ON AIR - LIVE AT THE BBC - VOL 2 26 1

30 New THE BEATLES IN STEREO 30 1

32 New SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND 32 1

37 New MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR 37 1

43 New 1962-1966 43 1

46 New HEY JUDE 46 1

48 New REVOLVER 48 1

51 New YESTERDAY AND TODAY 51 1

61 New RUBBER SOUL 61 1 (559 streams)

63 New REVOLVER - U.S VERSION 63 1

68 New LET IT BE 68 1

75 New THE CAPITOL ALBUMS - VOL 2 75 1

81 New HELP 81 1

82 New TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS 82 1

87 New LET IT BE - NAKED 87 1

 

But 11 of these albums are not available on any official streaming service. Where do the streams come from?

Beatles in Mono and Beatles in Stereo are not even in iTunes.

 

Where are the Beatles US albums found for streaming?

 

Do they come from 30sec previews in iTunes?

 

Her Majesty on Abbey Road only lasts 26 seconds but yet Spotify says it has been streamed over 5,000 times. How can this be?

Edited January 4, 20169 yr by ben08

I'd assume the stream total only includes those which lasted 30 seconds or more! I doubt there'd be a huge amount of less than 30 second plays anyway, at least in your typical chart hit.

 

Are those Beatles albums definitely not on Spotify? Maybe they're on other services? I'm not sure if I'm totally honest! Sorry I can't be more help.

Beatles In Stereo has the same content as The Beatles Box Set available on iTunes, which possibly accounts for one thing.

But there seems to be some sort of anomaly with Apple Music - I've never used it but I noticed the week they started (helpfully also the week Spotify data was AWOL) there were some very odd entries in the album streaming chart (ancient Elvis compilations, Oasis singles boxes etc) so I sort of imagine they report things differently from the others.

I'd assume the stream total only includes those which lasted 30 seconds or more! I doubt there'd be a huge amount of less than 30 second plays anyway, at least in your typical chart hit.

 

Are those Beatles albums definitely not on Spotify? Maybe they're on other services? I'm not sure if I'm totally honest! Sorry I can't be more help.

 

Spotify only has the studio albums, Past Masters [which is a collection of non-album tracks] and some best-of sets. https://play.spotify.com/artist/3WrFJ7ztbogyGnTHbHJFl2

Everywhere else I've looked has the same but as I said in the other post, I don't have Apple Music. That selection also matches what's available to download from sites other than iTunes, BTW.

 

 

Re short plays, the OCC said the limit was set at 30 seconds precisely because gave people time to skip if something they didn't like came up in a playlist, or they were just listening to a bit to see if they recognised the song, or they hit the play button my mistake or something. Or I suppose if they had to stop listening entirely but wanted to let the previous song finish. It's a pure guess but maybe Spotify might account differently for tracks that last less than 30 seconds so they aren't stuck on 0 forever.

Thanks for these replies.

If Beatles In Stereo is not even a digital download on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play how can it be streamed if only the studio albums plus 4 compilations are available on the 9 streaming services?

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS was an iTunes exclusive but is not on Apple Music. How does it appear on the OCC chart? Alan Jones did not explain this. Does iTunes reports 30 second previews as streams to Apple Music?

Any theories how Beatles Her Majesty (26 seconds) appears on Spotify as 7,297 plays?

I am really baffled.

Beatles In Stereo has the same content as The Beatles Box Set available on iTunes, which possibly accounts for one thing.

 

But there are separate entries for Beatles In Stereo (no. 30) and Beatles In Mono (no. 20). If you can't buy Beatles in Mono on iTunes how could you possibly stream it? How could they confuse Beatles Box Set with Beatles in Stereo in the chart listing as Beatles in Stereo can't be digitally downloaded anywhere?

Beatles in Mono only has 10 albums as opposed to 14 for Beatles in Stereo.

 

I think the OCC does the capping not Spotify

 

those Beatles albums must be on Apple, think they have things in there to listen that are not on itunes for sale

^ That's what I originally thought but a poster on UKMix states,

Apple Music just has the same 17 albums as the rest of the streaming services.

Any other ideas how you can stream an album that does not exist?

Am I alone in thinking that the streaming component of the chart needs tweaking a bit?

 

The current rules allow 70 streams a week, but the counter is reset each week. ISTM that there should be a 100 stream total limit per track, thus being a direct equivalent of buying it once.

 

Of course, that wouldn't stop people listening via more than one streaming service, or streaming different mixes of the same song, but that would just be the same as downloading different versions once.

And the Albums chart is also affected by streaming. Beatles 1 is no. 46 on downloads, no. 32 on physical but no. 6 on audio streams to give an overall chart position of no. 21.

To quote myself from elsewhere on Buzzjack:

 

See I think there are arguments for and against.

 

Against, streaming means it's now taking forever for songs to exit. In a way the chart is now more similar to the Billboard charts in America which have songs hang around forever. This weeks chart still has Lean On, Where Are U Now, Shut Up and Dance etc, the chart takes forever to refresh.

 

However, streaming allows slow-burners and songs that bubble under to have slow ascensions into the charts. Never Forget You was originally a flop OA/OS, but it slowly climbed thanks to streaming. Now we're seeing songs like When The Bassline Drops, Light It Up, All My Friends make it due to streams.

I think that's a good way of looking at things PumpedUpKicks. We just have to alter our expectations. Newer songs will climb in later on, rather than being a flop in week 1. This is why the shift to OA/OS is important too, because with held-back releases, their peak tends to be considerably lower.