Highlights  Do you know what a playback singer is? Or how about that Mexican Norteño music has German polka in it? I sure didn’t, but our A&R tool did!Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Friday, June 14th, 2019.Found on Friday: 4 Indian Playback Singers and 2 Norteño BandasSo checking into our A&R tool which roams the Interwebs for the biggest delta, or change, in between now and 28 days ago, we focus on the singular metric of total YouTube views via their artist channel.Looking at the Top 20 biggest gains, what’s not surprising? Billie Eilish at #5, that’s cool, Will Smith at #7 after the new Aladdin movie releasing, that’s also awesome…But you know what’s really hot? Indian playback singers, because they occupy positions 1 through 4!A playback singer in Bollywood masterfully records world-class vocals for songs for the on-camera actors to lip-sync to during shooting. For us Westerners who are obsessed with authenticity, let’s just imagine a publicly accepted form of lip-sync that not only helps create great Indian movies, but also celebrates the playback singers themselves.In the #1 spot is Calcutta-born Kumar Sanu with 30% YouTube view growth to 16.5M, who also just appeared on TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, which pits 5-15 year olds against each other in a singing competition.In the #2 position is Arijit Singh who saw 20% YouTube view growth to 18.7M, and just released “Bekhayali” from Indian dramatic film Kabir Singh on June 3rd.Coming #3 on our list, but #1 in the Bollywood industry, is Lata Mangeshkar with 19% view growth to 9M, but it’s honestly a footnote to one of the most well-known and highly-respected playback singers ever.Mangeshkar has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist with over 30K tracks in 20 different languages, the recipient of the Bharat Ratna,    India’s highest civilian honor (equivalent to the US Presidential Medal of Freedom), recipient of France’s Legion of Honour, and publicly selected as 10th Greatest Indian of modern times.How’s that for achievement? I really don’t think she cares about her YouTube views right now, nor should she. Hats off to her.Moving to Mexico, Norteño music is a genre of Northern Mexico that blends German polka and waltz traditions with Mexican ones.For all of us not familiar with Mexican music, the key instruments that define Norteño is the accordion (gracias a los europeos) and the bajo sexto, which translates to “sixth bass”, and looks like a 12-string guitar, but is used as a bass instrument.Now in the #6 position is Los Invasores De Nuevo León, with 10% YouTube view growth to 26M.The Latin Grammy-nominated Los Invasores, or “The Invaders of Nuevo León”, formed in 1978, and are currently on tour in south Texas,In the #16 position is Los Tucanes De Tijuana, with 5% view growth to 132M.“Los Tucanes”, or “The Toucans of Tijuana”, made history this year as first norteño act to play Coachella, also getting keys to the city.And if you want to catch up with some meme action, look up the “La Chona” challenge...their fast-paced 1994 record received a revival last year when uploaders recorded themselves dancing to “La Chona” outside their moving vehicles, a la Drake’s “In My Feelings”.OutroBueno! That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday, June 14th, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Please give us a shout-out on iTunes. If you’re on an iPhone, dodge those crafty notifications and just scroll down on the Daily Data Dump page in your Apple Podcasts app or in the Ratings and Review tab in your iTunes app on your laptop, and show some love, Rutger and I appreciate it.Free accounts are at chartmetric.comAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Friday, have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!

HighlightsIt’s time to hit the road again, so we’re heading down south to trigger city São Paulo, Brazil. What makes it such an important global music marketplace?Mission   Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Thursday, June 13th, 2019.Excursion Thursday: Trigger City São Paulo, BrazilWe’re hitting the road again, heading down south to trigger city São Paulo, Brazil, to see what makes it such an important global music marketplace. First, it’s important to note that São Paulo is also a state in Brazil — naturally, the state in which São Paulo, the city, is located. Obviously, this presents some major metadata problems, which are compounded by the fact that São Paulo (with a tilde) and “Sao Paulo” (without a tilde) are reported as different cities. Adjusting for metadata errors, the city, which is Brazil’s wealthiest and most populous, is ranked third in the world for non-unique monthly Spotify listeners, based on our calculations from a week in May.For that same week, São Paulo came in ninth for global YouTube views.They’re really living up to their city motto, “I am not led; I lead.”It’s not just local artists and the longstanding sertanejo style updated for younger people skyrocketing São Paulo with regional streams.Scanning our top artists charts, the city comes up on three of the Top 10 artists — namely, J Balvin, Justin Bieber, and Shawn Mendes — as somewhere people listen most.Of the Top 100 artists globally according to our Cross-Platform Performance metric, São Paulo is in the Top 5 listener cities for 26, or just a bit more than a quarter, of them.Zooming in a bit and looking at Top Artists by Spotify Monthly Listeners on São Paulo’s city page, Brazilian artists do tend to dominate, with the 10 most listened-to artists, except for Lady Gaga, calling Brazil home.On Top Artists by YouTube Views, the Top 10 are all Brazilian as well, but when it comes to Top Artists by Shazam Chart Occurrences, only two Brazilians make the Top 10, suggesting São Paulo locals are loyal to their countrymen and countrywomen on major streaming platforms, but Shazam is where they learn what’s happening in the Anglo music world.And they certainly have an ear for British and American hits like “Giant” by Calvin Harris and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man or “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille.With a population comparable to New York City and Los Angeles combined, São Paulo tops each of those cities on the global stage, thanks to a musical ecosystem — not to mention tradition — as robust as the Amazon rainforest and an appetite for pop hits from their neighbors on the northern side of the Tropic of Cancer.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday, June 13th, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.If you’re interested in learning more about trigger cities, check out Jason’s in-depth analysis on our blog at blog.chartmetric.io.Free accounts are at chartmetric.comAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Thursday, and see you tomorrow!

HighlightsSpecial interview episode today: Does data science scare you? Does it keep you up at night when you hear or read about it at a panel or on some podcast, and you think to yourself, “I have no idea what they are talking about.”Rest easy and let Chartmetric’s Resident Data Scientist assuage your fears.How do you measure artist success across multiple streaming, social and other Internets platforms? We might have something for you.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason and Josh here at Chartmetric usually with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Wednesday, June 12th, 2019.Interview OutlineWhat is Cross-Platform Performance scoring and ranking on Chartmetric?Josh’s blog article / CPP explanationCPP measurementsStage: This is the amount of “reach” or “exposure” that an artist has over audiences. The bigger the stage, the more people actively listening, watching, or consuming what the artist is creating.Followers: This is the size of an artist’s “fanbase” or an artist’s “stickiness” with audiences. Followers have opted into tracking an artist and therefore are more likely to re-engage with the artist’s products in the future. Followers are not actively engaging with an artist all the time, but artists have an easier job of connecting with followers than non-followers.Cool CPP video to visualize the data science (made by Graphic & Motion Design Artist Anastasiya Bulavkina)Philosophical debate: what is “best” nowadays?Is there a way for people to reach out to you on the Interwebs, Josh?Josh’s LinkedIn profilehi (at) chartmetric (dot) comOutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday, June 12th, 2019. This is Josh and Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Wednesday, see you tomorrow!

2019-06-11 // Technique Tuesday: DJ Khaled vs. Tyler, the Creator HighlightsDJ Khaled is taking on Billboard’s charting calculations and Tyler, the Creator is caught in the crossfire. So, how do the two artists stack up in the streaming world?Mission   Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Tuesday, June 11th, 2019.Technique Tuesday: DJ Khaled vs. Tyler, the CreatorYesterday, Music Business Worldwide and Pitchfork reported that DJ Khaled, who just released his new album “Father of Asahd,” is taking on Billboard’s charting methods following the album’s No. 2 placement on the Billboard 200 Albums chart behind Tyler, the Creator’s “Igor.”At the heart of the issue is a discrepancy in physical album sales due to the practice of bundling, or wrapping up the sale of an album with the sale of merchandise.Here are the numbers: Billboard credited Tyler, the Creator with 165,000 total album sales for the week, and DJ Khaled with 137,000. For “Igor,” that’s 74,000 physical albums sold, 90,000 Streaming Equivalent Albums sold (SEA) and 1,000 Track, or download, Equivalent Albums sold (TEA).For “Father of Asahd,” the same breakdown came out to 35,000 physical, 95,000 SEA, and 7,000 TEA.So far, the ostensibly arbitrary SEA measurement isn’t DJ Khaled’s issue here, but if he really is pursuing a lawsuit, then Billboard’s charting methods for streams could come under scrutiny as well.Here’s how they’re calculating it: According to the New York Times’ Ben Sisario, four years ago, 1,500 streams equalled the equivalent of one physical album sale, but Billboard’s new method comes out to 1,250 for paid streams and 3,750 for free streams.We can’t measure differentiated streams for DJ Khaled and Tyler, the Creator according to Billboard’s new method, but we can use our Analyze function to visibly compare the changes in their monthly Spotify listeners on a custom chart.While Tyler starts off at an estimated 6.5 million monthly listeners, DJ Khaled is at an estimated 18 million around the release of their albums on May 17.By the end of the week, Tyler has crossed the 10 mil threshold and DJ Khaled has racked up an estimated 20.7 mil. This means Tyler experienced a more than 50% growth rate in monthly listeners and DJ Khaled only around 15% for their album debut week ending on May 23.However, DJ Khaled still ends up with around twice as many monthly Spotify listeners for the week. Does this translate to what Billboard calculated as each artist’s SEA? That’s difficult to say, because each unique monthly listener only gets counted once for every 28-day period -- no matter how many times they play a track.While DJ Khaled is more exposed on the playlist front, Tyler saw a bigger gain in monthly listeners during their album release week.Tyler also overtook Khaled’s Spotify Popularity Index score with a 92, vs. Khaled’s 88, out of 100.Based on this data, Tyler’s “Igor” is complementing his catalogue and driving more of his streaming collectively, while DJ Khaled’s success depends on a handful of mega hits.It’s a cult hip-hop icon vs. a Top 40 superstar, but DJ Khaled, with some 2.8 billion YouTube video views for the week in question, compared to just 442 million for Tyler, the Creator, shouldn’t have too much to complain about.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday, June 11th, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Tuesday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsShazam isn’t just in the music fingerprinting and identification game — it’s also playlisting on Apple Music with Shazam Recommends: Best New Music. Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Monday, June 10, 2019.New Music Friday Monday: Shazam’s Best New Music Recommendations … on Apple Music?Did you know that Shazam moonlights as playlisting curator on Apple Music?It’s currently managing 11 official playlists, including a mix of prediction-oriented genre-based ones like “Shazam Risers: Latin” or “Shazam Risers: K-Pop”, or exclusive celebrity playlists from the likes of David Guetta or BLACKPINK.Interestingly, Shazam also runs the “Shazam Recommends: The Best New Music” playlist, which is refreshed primarily on Fridays and Saturdays.Apple acquired Shazam in September of 2018, though we have Shazam playlists dating back to early 2017.So now that Shazam is now officially an Apple asset, it’s likely Apple Music is incorporating Shazam’s unique predictive dataset as a way to predict future hits...but does it actually work?If we compare last week’s Shazam “Best New Music” playlist with the Apple Music Top 100 charts today, we can try to see if- at least within the Apple Music platform- that actually becomes true or not.After some quick spot checks, the Shazam “Best New Music” playlist is actually global: it’s the same tracks and ordering no matter which country storefront you’re listening from. So the best comparison would naturally be the Apple Music Top 100 Global chart.The last Shazam “Best New Music” playlist was updated on June 1st, and comparing it to today’s Apple Top 100 global chart, there are actually four tracks in common:“The London” by Young Thug at #2 on the Top 100“Cross Me” by Ed Sheeran at #28“Don’t Call Me Up” by Mabel at #59“Easier” by Five Seconds of Summer at #66 of the Top 100So out of last week’s “Best New Music” playlist, 4 of out of the 24 total tracks ended up charting one week later, about 15%. Pretty cool.Now, cross-checking last week’s “Best New Music” playlist, but now comparing it to Shazam’s own Top 200 chart, which is its own chart independent of the Apple platform, we have the same, and only the same, four tracks pop up: the ones from Young Thug, Ed Sheeran, Mabel and Five Seconds of Summer.That’s interesting because finding tracks that are only on Apple’s Top charts are subject to Apple algorithms and other playlists, while Shazam Top charts are privy to being played in public spaces and people having the app and Shazaming those tracks.But to find the same track on both charts, must really mean that the tracks are achieving a kind of success both in user curiosity and actual streaming activity on one of biggest platforms in the world.Now, what feeds Shazam’s “Best New Music” playlist in the first place, as they are all new releases and so Shazam doesn’t really have any data on them...well, we don’t know either.Maybe they are doing granular music analysis on the song waveforms or maybe it’s just a result of traditional playlist pitching, but what we can measure in the data, is see which ones stick. Just give it a week!OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday, June 10, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Monday, see you tomorrow!

Highlights  It’s Found on Friday, and we’re using Spotify playlist adds and reach to introduce you to a tropical DJ from Spain, an American lo-fi beats producer and an Irish singer-songwriter with literary flair.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Friday, June 7th, 2019.Found on Friday: Playlist Reach Uncovers a Galician DJ, an American lo-fi beats producer and an Irish Literary SongwriterIt’s Found on Friday, which means we are digitally crate-digging for new artists in the proverbial streaming record shops of the Internets, and this time through the lens of “reach”.In the world of social media, reach is the unique number of people who see a particular piece of content, and we can contrast that with “impressions”, which are the total number of times they see that content, and “engagement”, which is the number of interactions those audience members actively take upon that content.In Spotify’s streaming world, reach in one sense is obviously playlisting, and we can aggregate how many followers a particular playlist has, and at the artist-level, aggregate how many total playlist followers that artist has at any given point.These of course are non-unique follower counts, as we all are probably following dozens if not hundreds of playlists from each of our single profiles.Nevertheless, it’s still a measure of reach, and that can be an important metric for determining which artists are in a great position to break. Now ranked by number of new popular playlists adds in the past 30 days, Spanish DJ Zeper occupies the #1 spot today.From Pontevedra, Galicia, the young producer has a very accessible tropical dance vibe that has Majestic Casual vibes and would easily fit in any college student’s chillout or study playlist. Currently on 50 playlists with 10K or more followers, Zeper’s total playlist reach is over 2.8M followers, growing over 45K total followers since last week.His latest release was “Stop” on May 31st collaborating with another emerging artist KRIMETZ.Now added on an additional 39 playlists with over 10K followers each is American artist Hurley Mower.With his polished take on the lo-fi beats genre, Mower gained nearly another 30K aggregated playlist followers in the past week, bringing him over the 2M mark.With 207K monthly listeners and only 5.3K followers on his own Spotify profile, he’s got a listener to follower ratio of 38, which definitely puts him well into the promising artist category for that metric.Last but not least is Jealous of the Birds. Such an interesting name.On 5 playlists with more than 10K followers, the Irish singer-songwriter has over 767K total playlist followers, including Spotify’s Evening Acoustic playlist in the 84/100 spot and the Sad Indie playlist in the 60/80 position.She’s no stranger to attention however, her previous tracks have been from NPR’s All Songs Considered and BBC Radio 1’s Tune of the Week.No matter what you’re vibe, there’s some new artists hanging out on your smartphone, check them out this weekend!Outro That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday, June 7th, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Do you like this podcast? Does it help your day? If so, this is the part where we grovel at your feet for an iTunes rating or review...we are a business to business podcast, so it’s not like we’re trying to blow up, but if we can grow our audience some more to maybe start a music data interest community, we think that could be a really cool thing.So if you like what we do, please give us a shout-out on iTunes. If you’re on an iPhone, just scroll all the way down on the Daily Data Dump page in your Apple Podcasts app or in the Ratings and Review tab in your iTunes app on your laptop, and show some love, Rutger and I will do a silent happy dance for every star that we get.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Friday, have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!

2019-06-06 // Excursion Thursday: Honoring D-Day With Popular Normandy Locals in Rouen, France HighlightsIt’s Excursion Thursday, and in honor of D-Day, we’re heading to Rouen, France, to see which Normandy locals are the most popular right now.Mission   Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Thursday, June 6th, 2019.Excursion Thursday: Honoring D-Day With Popular Normandy Locals in Rouen, FranceOn this D-Day edition of Excursion Thursday, which marks 75 years since the Normandy landings during World War II, we’re heading to Normandy’s capital, Rouen, France, to see which Normandy locals are the most popular right now.During the Middle Ages, Rouen was one of the most important cities in Europe, and in 1944, it was left in ruins in the aftermath of D-Day operations. Today, the city has a population of somewhere around 112,000, and its most notable current or former local from the music world is 19-year-old tropical house DJ and producer Petit Biscuit — remember him from Monday’s episode?He’s currently the 685th most popular artist on Spotify according to monthly listeners and is ranked a bit more than 2,000th across Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, SoundCloud, Instagram, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Twitter, according to our new Cross-Platform Performance, or CPP, score. While Kanka’s “deep and hypnotic bass” has him at around 36,000th when it comes to monthly Spotify listeners, across all platforms, the dub star is at around 89K, according to CPP.Indie pop outfit Tahiti 80, who formed while students at the University of Rouen, are arguably the more popular locals, with a Spotify monthly listener rank that’s barely higher than Kanka’s, but with a CPP ranking of around 25K, that puts them some 63,000 spots ahead of fellow compatriot Kanka and almost 23,000 spots behind Rouen comrade Petit Biscuit.Rouen indie rockers La Maison Tellier seem to have a bit more uniformity between their Spotify monthly listener rank of 48K and their CPP ranking of around 59K.Outside of Normandy, Parisian DJ David Guetta is ranked 18th on Spotify but 9th according to CPP, and Parisian legend Serge Gainsbourg is in the mid 5,000s and around 3,000th.And for a little global perspective, Taylor Swift is ranked 16th on Spotify but 5th according to CPP, Beyonce is 46th and 15th, Ariana Grande is 9th and 2nd, and the Beatles are 114th and 103rd. Keep in mind, however, that there are an estimated 1.5 million artists in this data pool, so even Kanka’s CPP rank of almost 89,000 puts him in the top 6 percent.Not too shabby.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday, June 6th, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Thursday, thank you to all of our veterans out there, and see you tomorrow!

HighlightsSpecial interview episode: Why and how does city-centric music data help out the business?Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason and Komala here at Chartmetric usually with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Wednesday, June 5th, 2019.City-Level Music Data with Chartmetric software engineer Komala PrabhuAnd after all that, you now have app.chartmetric.com/city-list for Premium users! If you are a free tier user, you are in luck: use the coupon code PODCAST53 in your Settings menu, and you will get a 14-day free Premium trial.Thank you Komala for taking the time!Komala's LinkedInOutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday, June 5th, 2019. This is Komala and Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Wednesday, see you tomorrow!

2019-06-04 // Charting the End of iTunes HighlightsIn the wake of Apple’s announcement that it will end the iTunes digital download as we know it, we’re scanning the iTunes Charts to see what, if anything, will be lost.    Mission   Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Tuesday, June 4th, 2019.Charting the End of iTunesToday, we’re looking at the U.S. iTunes Charts following Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) announcement that it will be ending the iTunes digital download as we know it and spinning out the iTunes app into three separate apps for Apple Music, podcasts, and television.What will that mean for the music you already purchased and downloaded? Rest assured, Apple is making provisions for the digital downloads you already own. The company wouldn’t be ending the iTunes digital download era without good cause — namely, most consumers stream; they don’t mp3 anymore.That said, what will be lost? We’re gonna walk you through how to figure that out using the iTunes Top 100 Tracks and iTunes Albums charts for U.S. storefronts.Looking solely at chart position, there’s a lot of correlation between high performing pop downloads and high performing pop streams on Apple’s iTunes and Music apps, respectively. Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road,” Katy Perry’s “Never Really Over,” Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber’s “I Don’t Care,” and Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” being prime examples.Differences emerge with different genres, however. At No. 2 on the U.S. iTunes chart for June 3rd is John Rich’s “Shut Up About Politics,” which is nowhere on the Apple Music Daily Tracks chart. Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” which is at No. 6 on the U.S. iTunes chart for June 3rd, ranks just 89th on the U.S. Apple Music Daily Tracks. It’s a similar story for Morgan Wallen’s “Whiskey Glasses” at No. 7 on iTunes but No. 71 on Apple Music, and for Luke Combs’ “Beer Never Broke My Heart” at No. 12 on iTunes but No. 64 on Apple Music. What will this mean for country fans who tend to prefer digital downloads? In 2017, Pandora's chief executive, Tim Westergren, saw promise in converting country listeners into paying subscribers considering how active country fans and artists are on the platform. We’ll see if the end of iTunes chases country fans from Apple to Pandora, but that would still require an adjustment from a download oriented consumer base to a streaming oriented consumer base.iTunes has also been huge for another important segment of the music industry: movie soundtracks. Looking at chart summaries by artist, Elton John and Will Smith have nine and four tracks on the iTunes Top 100, respectively, and it’s all thanks to the recent Elton John biopic, Rocket Man, and Guy Ritchie’s live-action Aladdin movie, starring Will Smith as the genie. Jumping over to the iTunes Albums in All Genres chart for June 3rd, the Aladdin soundtrack is at No. 3 and various Elton John albums and/or compilations scatter the top 10. Amazingly, the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman — a movie released two years ago — is at No. 9.While the end of iTunes probably won’t affect income streams for most artists — as the majority of music consumers have largely forgotten about mp3s anyway — for country music stars and artists on movie soundtracks, the end of this era just might sting a little. OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday, June 4th, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Tuesday, see you tomorrow!

Highlights  It’s New Music Friday Monday, and we’re checking out some do-it-yourself artists on Deezer’s Radar Weekly playlist with 141K global fans.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Monday, June 3rd, 2019.New Music Friday Monday: Deezer’s Radar Weekly DIY artistsWelcome back to the work week! Today we’re checking out not Spotify’s “New Music Friday” nor Apple’s “Best of the Week”, but Deezer’s Radar Weekly playlist with 40 new releases.Taking the top three playlist positions are the 808-driven track “Mother’s Daughter” from Miley Cyrus and Sony, the electropop record “Never Really Over” from Katy Perry and Universal and then the mid-tempo “Find U Again” track by Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello, also from Sony.But as Radar Weekly is Deezer’s 149th most followed playlist, these leading positions might not mean much to Deezer’s wider audience...the platform’s most popular playlists are geographic-specific featuring more domestic repertoire.So even though Radar Weekly is self-described as having the “biggest new releases of the week”, Deezer’s listeners seem to prefer music that speaks to their own culture without outside influence.However, since this playlist’s 141K fans probably come to Radar Weekly for more of a global sound, we thought it’d be worth checking out some DIY artists who also prefer doing their own thing, without the influence of a label. So in the #8 slot is DIY pop star Lauv living up to the sadboi persona with the melancholy anthem “Sad Forever,” marking the 2nd single off of his upcoming sophomore LP, “How I’m Feeling.”On Spotify, Lauv has a Popularity Index of 88 out of 100 and 26M Monthly Listeners, and remains an independent artist thanks to a licensing deal with Kobalt’s AWAL.Check out the mostly Asian-driven playlist evolution of his 2017 hit track “I Like Me Better” in a recent article we’ve written in the show notes.In the 23rd spot on Radar Weekly is “We Were Young,” by French DJ and music producer Petit Biscuit, who self releases his music on his own label, aptly titled Petit Biscuit Music.His soul-infused tropical house comes from a mind only 19 years old, already collecting some 320K Deezer fans, with a Spotify Popularity of 77 out of 100. Last but not least is dodie, an English singer-songwriter and YouTuber who also self-releases her music, including the minimal-sounding and intimate track “Guiltless” in the #30 position this week.She’s racked up over 8K Deezer fans, over 1M Twitter and IG followers and over 1.8M YouTube subscribers, sans label. So while major pop stars might seem to outshine the do-it-yourselfers at the top of playlists like Deezer’s Radar Weekly, take a chance and hit shuffle play, cause you just might find a few new DIY artists to follow. Outro That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday, June 3rd, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.comHappy Monday, see you tomorrow!

Highlights   It’s Found on Friday, and we’re celebrating the big five-oh by unearthing some breaking artists according to social and Spotify follows.Mission    Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.Date This is your Data Dump for Friday, May 31st, 2019.Found on Friday: A Dutch YouTube Personality, a Turkish Rocker, and Sisters in a Cover Band It’s Found on Friday, and we’re celebrating our 50th episode by unearthing three artists breaking on the social and Spotify follow growth charts.First up: 22-year-old Dutch YouTube personality and rising European pop star Simon De Wit, aka Blanks, who experienced a 27 percent growth in SoundCloud followers over the last 28 day period. Along with SoundCloud growth, he’s also experienced a 52 percent increase in Spotify followers and a 27.6 percent increase in Instagram followers. Blanks’ bio reads, “Make yourself happy,” and he’s got to be feeling pretty happy about those stats right about now.His beachy, funky pop vibe is sure to put a smile on listeners faces as well.Next up, it’s Turkish rocker Ufuk Beydemir, who is absolutely killing it on Insta with a 595 percent increase in followers.And it’s translating well on other platforms, too, with a 31 percent increase in Spotify followers over the last 28 day period.I don’t speak Turkish, but I don’t think you really need to to understand the wistfulness in his catchy and accessible rock ballads. Thought cover bands couldn’t gain traction? Think again. American sisters Sidney and Caitlin Powell, who comprise folk duo Neoni, are going viral thanks to their acoustic renditions of prominent pop songs like Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Just a quick glance at their YouTube channel reveals the sheer breadth of their covers, from Evanescence to Gnarls Barkley songs.But enough of the fluff, what about the numbers? Neoni have gone from zero to 100 (and then some) in their Spotify followers over the last 28 day period, which far surpasses any growth they’re seeing on other platforms. Their Instagram follower growth is down, in fact, by .6 percent, and their SoundCloud followers are up by only .9 percent.From May 14 to May 15, Neoni’s follower count skyrocketed from 179 to 16,730, which is interesting, because they don’t appear to have been added to any prominent playlists. While this smells like a metadata error at first sniff, a closer whiff shows why it’s not.What that exponential growth tells us is that Neoni either just joined Spotify within the last month and happened to bring some of their YouTube popularity with them all of the sudden, or…. something else is going on.Ah, the power of a name change. With a little digging, we find that Neoni used to be called Facing West, and the Powell sisters announced their official name change on Instagram on May 4.Looking at Facing West’s Spotify follower stats reveals an astonishing drop from 16,682 to 59. Can you guess when that happened? Yep, May 14 to May 15. It might have taken 10 days, but through their label or distributor, the sisters were able to transfer their Spotify follower count from Facing West to Neoni, which accounts for the lopsided, and ultimately deceiving, growth percentage for Neoni’s Spotify followers. All that to say, sometimes, numbers can be deceiving if you’re not looking at the bigger picture. Outro That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday, May 31st, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Friday, have a great weekend, and see you on Monday!

HighlightsIt’s Excursion Thursday, we’re teleporting to Tokyo, Japan, where local music matters for Spotify and Instagram, but not for Shazam. What does that say about public and private listening habits in Tokyo?Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Thursday, May 30th, 2019.Excursion Thursday:As Japan’s capital and the world’s largest city with a population of around 38 million, Tokyo is the heart of the No. 2 music market in the world.Despite streaming’s rescue of the global music industry from a $14.6B decline in global revenue since the 2000s, a lot of Japanese simply don’t care as 71% of their local recorded music revenue in 2018 came from physical sales.Along with their love of physical music goods, Japan’s consumer base also remains faithful to its local artists. According to Ichiro Asatsuma, Chairman of Fujipacific Music., the breakdown of the country’s physical sales is typically 85-90% Japanese repertoire and 10-15% international.Now how does this percentage distribution hold up in Tokyo’s digital market? Looking at Top Artists by Spotify Monthly Listeners in the past month, 18 of the top 25 are Japanese, and by recent Instagram Followers, 15 of the Top 25 Artists are also local. But Spotify and Instagram are generally more private platforms when it comes to use, at least in comparison to an audio fingerprinting app like Shazam, which is utilized in a public space like a bar or a club.So, what’s the Shazam spread look like? Of the 25 Top Artists by Shazam Chart Occurrences in the past month, only three are Japanese.So recently, locals tend to prefer Japanese artists on Spotify and Instagram, at 72 and 60 percent respectively, but not at quite the same 85-90 percent distribution that Asatsuma suggests for physical.On Shazam, the preference for Japanese artists bottoms out at only 12% domestic.This suggests that Tokyo locals are more likely to listen to their fellow countrymen and women when they’re in a personal streaming mode and they’re simply curious about foreign music when they’re in a public environment.But YouTube, arguably the most “global” platform of this bunch and the 2nd most visited website in the world, seems to have more of a globalizing effect on Tokyo’s use of it. Looking at Top Artists by local YouTube Video Views, only eight of the top 25 are Japanese. Same story when it comes to Top Tracks by local YouTube Views, with just three of the top 10 originating in Japan. That’s a 32 and a 30 percent distribution, respectively, indicating international preference just might increase the more global the streaming platform gets.Granted, these streaming stats are from the last 28 days, so they’re more current, and also susceptible to fluctuation and recent releases...so if a few Japanese bangers make some great YouTube videos next month, then the numbers might be telling a different story.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday, May 30th, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Thursday, see you tomorrow!

Highlights It’s Winner Wednesday, and we’re scanning the top of the SoundCloud and QQ Music charts to see what moods are winning out on two very different streaming platforms. Mission    Good morning, it’s Rutger here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.Date This is your Data Dump for Wednesday, May 29th, 2019.Winner Wednesday: Welcome back to this week’s Winner Wednesday, where we’re scanning the SoundCloud and QQ Music charts to see what song valences are winning out on those two very different streaming platforms.First, what the heck is valence? Think of it as the mood or emotional quality of a track. With high valence songs, there’s going to be more positive or cheerful energy, and low valence songs are going to sound a bit more negative, sad, or angry. In other words, 100 percent valence suggests a song might be the happiest you’ve ever heard. 0 percent valence suggests it’s going to be downright depressing.Note that we measure valence irrespective of lyrical content, so there’s plenty potential for a low valence song to have uplifting lyrics, but that’s not typically the case.  Looking at the top of the SoundCloud charts for May 18-24, there’s a clear and unsurprising frontrunner when it comes to genre: hip-hop. In fact, the genre overwhelms the Top 100 consistently, making the Swedish-founded streaming service almost exclusively important to the rap scene. Why does this matter for valence? SoundCloud was crucial for helping niche sub-genres like emo rap and trap — both of which tend to be characterized by melancholy — go mainstream. So much so, in fact, that dark and gritty “SoundCloud rap” has become a genre altogether.   So, is it borne out in the data? For the most part, yes. At No. 1, “Shotta Flow” by NLE Choppa has a 45 percent valence measurement; at No. 3, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X is at 47 percent; and if we dip down to No. 4 and No. 5, “Pop Out” by Polo G featuring Lil TJay is only at 25 percent and Earfquake by Tyler, the Creator is only at 41 percent. The outlier here is “Suge” by DaBaby, which is at No. 2 with 85 percent valence.  And that brings us to Chinese streaming service and Tencent subsidiary, QQ Music. Looking at the platform’s Western Music Chart behavior during a similar timeframe, pop and dance are the genre frontrunners, with 50 of 96 songs tagged with those genre identifiers. Here, hip-hop only accounts for eight. With pop and dance frontloading QQ Music’s Western Music Chart, you’d probably expect high valence songs at the top. Would you be right?“Me!” by Taylor Swift featuring Panic! At the Disco’s Brendon Urie, “Rescue Me” by One Republic, and “If I Can’t Have You” by Shawn Mendes hit the high notes here with 66, 64, and 82 percent valence measurements, respectively. But Carly Rae Jepsen and Lana Del Rey, at No. 4 and No. 5, bring out our sensitive side with 37 and 45 percent. Taking the average valence of the top five on each of these charts gives us a total score of 48.6 percent valence for SoundCloud. QQ Music, meanwhile, is a bit less moody at 58.8 percent valence. So, does SoundCloud have more edge? We can’t say that definitively across the board, but we can say that the top of the SoundCloud Chart is less positively valenced than the top of QQ’s Western Music Chart when it comes to mood — and it’s all in the genres each streaming service caters to, which might suggest something about audience geography. Does China have a bigger appetite for happy pop than Westerners with a palette more open to edgy rap?Outro That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday, May 29th, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Have a winning Wednesday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsMajor labels usually dominate top music playlists, but Apple’s Global Release Day playlist, Best of the Week, tells a different story.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Tuesday, May 28th, 2019.New Music Friday Monday:Hope the American listeners enjoyed Memorial Day and those in the UK Spring Bank Holiday, welcome back to the work week.On this New Music Friday Tuesday, we’re revisiting the newest adds to Apple Music’s Best of the Week playlist in the US storefront since we last looked in late March.Like Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist, it updates every Global Release Friday. With a 28-Day Add Ratio of 100 percent, it’s obviously the most frontline of frontline playlists, and brings 67 new songs to our attention this week.In the No. 1, 2, and 3 spots on Friday’s playlist positioning are Ed Sheeran, Young Thug, and YG, with tracks released by Warner and Universal subsidiaries.No real surprise here, but new deals and labels are making the spread a bit more interesting: only 11 of the 67 tracks this week were owned and operated by majors, just over 16%.The funky track “Playground” by The Internet guitarist and recent Vampire Weekend collaborator Steve Lacy bucks the major label trend altogether with a partnership between music startup 3qtr (Three Quarter), who consider themselves part record label, venture capital, management, and PR firm, and label services company AWAL, or Artists Without a Label, which is owned by publishing and tech firm Kobalt, currently neck and neck with the majors when it comes to market share in publishing.At the #5 position on the US Best of the Week is Clairo with chilled-out track “Bags,” who is operating under a 12-song licensing deal with the FADER Label, something that’s becoming increasingly popular for artists wanting to retain ownership and creative control over their copyrights.With over 12 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Chance the Rapper released the mid-tempo jam “Cross Me” with Ed Sheeran in the #1 position, still a poster boy for the DIY artist career track.Flying Lotus is back in the mix, with a Denzel Curry cameo on “Black Balloons Reprise” and the Warp Records release of his sixth studio album, Flamagra. While presumably a traditional deal, the British electronic label Warp is another notable indie at the top of this week’s best. Throwing in other new releases from Google-backed 300 Entertainment, indie country giant Big Machine Label Group, and K-pop’s enormous SM Entertainment agency…what defines “major” and ”indie” starts to get dicey at best.The majors might still have the lion’s share of the industry, but this week’s Best of the Week mixes things up and shows today’s artists what a variety of potential career options could look like.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday, May 28th, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow!

Highlights It’s Found on Friday, and we’re digging in with our A&R tool to find breaking artists based on YouTube Channel Views, and that’s important, because YouTube is technically the most popular streaming platform in the world.Mission    Good morning, it’s Rutger again at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.Date This is your Data Dump for Friday, May 24th 2019.Found on Friday: Momoiro Clover Z, Yella Beezy & Junip Welcome back to Found on Friday. We’re digging in with our A&R tool to find artists breaking through the surface in a global way. If we search according to highest growth percentage in YouTube Channel Views, we land on three artists with notable momentum on YouTube right now: Momoiro Clover Z, Yella Beezy, and Junip.First up, J-pop group, let's call them MCZ for short, the first to make theme music for Sailor Moon, Pokémon, AND Dragonball Z, in addition to being the fourth highest grossing artist in Japan in 2013, based on CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray sales — yes, physical is still VERY important in the Japanese music market — they've experienced a 14 percent growth in their YouTube channel views over the last 28-day period.Their Spotify monthly listeners have spiked almost 29 percent over the last 30 days as well. But the group is not new, so what shot them to the top of the breaking list? Well ... they did just come out with a new album on May 17th.…Just about tied with MCZ is Texas rapper Yella Beezy, whose growth percentage is up to 14.4 percent this period from the previous 30 days’ 9.5 percent. Yella Beezy, whose latest track features Gucci Mane and Quavo from Migos, also soared 16 spots from No. 50 to No. 34 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. Switching gears altogether now for Sweden’s folk rock duo Junip, composed of soft-spoken singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez and Tobias Winterkorn, who experienced a 13 percent jump in the last 28 day-period. This correlates with a 10.2 percent increase in their YouTube channel subscribers over the last 30 days, which is surprising, as it doesn’t look like they’ve released anything recently…. Maybe fans of Rogue Wave and Ben Howard got turned on to them? We don’t know. What we do know is Junip’s monthly Spotify listeners dropped an estimated .2 percent in the last 30 days, but their Spotify followers increased .4 percent in the same period. So, no, not all streaming services are created equal.Check out these stats: YouTube is technically the biggest music streaming source in the world, with close to a billion users consuming music via user upload video streaming. Compare that with just over 200 million users consuming music via “traditional” streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, and the importance of YouTube stats as some indication of an artist’s digital presence worldwide becomes clear.So there you have it — a Japanese idol group, a Texas rapper, and a Swedish folk duo comprise an eclectic trio of international artists on a YouTube hot streak right now.Outro That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday, May 24th 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Friday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsGrab your passports, it’s Excursion Thursday, and we’re headed to Mumbai, India’s largest city and Spotify’s largest potential market.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Thursday, May 23rd, 2019.Excursion Thursday: MumbaiOn today’s Excursion Thursday, we’re taking off to India’s most populated city, Mumbai, which has quickly become a testing ground for Spotify’s global expansion strategy. Until 1995, the “Hollywood of India” was also called Bombay, what many in India saw as a vestige of British colonialism, hence the name change. The city’s booming movie industry lends the city its other famous moniker, “Bollywood”.Mumbai is not only the wealthiest city in India, but it’s also arguably the financial, arts, and entertainment capital of the entire country with an estimated 22.5 million  Mumbaikars more than doubling the population of New York City!It’s clear why Spotify’s weathering its recent challenges in-country, as India’s population is currently at 1.4 billion and climbing — that’s almost 20 percent of everybody on earth, while North America comprises around 5 percent. So, if Spotify’s been able to acquire an estimated 50M monthly active users out of North America’s 366M people and an estimated 60M monthly active users out of Europe’s 743M people, that gives them a market penetration rate lying somewhere between 8 and 15 percent. Apply that to a population of 1.4B, and SPOT’s stock price will rise, for sure.So, based on the city’s listening profile….how’s it going? Unfortunately, it’s too early to tap into Spotify’s local monthly listeners, but we can at least look at other Western platforms that are operating there.Mumbai’s Shazam and YouTube charts definitely reflect the battle between domestic and foreign repertoire preferences.According to the Top 90 tracks by Shazam Chart Occurrences in the past month, a total of 22 bear Indian ISRC codes. That’s around 25% of total Shazam’d tracks we captured, while there are 38 US-based ISRCs present, about 40%.Moving to Shazam’s most charted artists in Mumbai over the last 30 days, American rappers Swae Lee and Lil Nas X come in 1st and 3rd with 52 and 47 chart appearances, respectively, and Puerto Rican singer Farruko in 2nd with 50. Fourth and 5th place go to film music composers Vishal-Shekhar and star singer Arijit Singh with 42 and 41 chart appearances each.Using Top Tracks by YouTube Views, we see a mixed bag at the top, with T. Swift and Brendon Urie’s “Me!” at 235K average daily views and Katy Perry and Migos’ “Bon Appétit” at 77K daily views in 1st and 3rd place respectively. Second place goes to “Aankh Mare” from Bollywood movie Simmba sitting pretty at 188K views. Genre-wise on the Shazam charts in the past month, it’s still a battle between local and foreign fare: with Hip-Hop at 11 genre tags from mostly American artists, Dance at 15 genre tags from an international artist roster, and Pop at 22 genre tags from both Western and Indian artists. Twelve of Pop genre tags are from domestic artists, suggesting there’s a slight skew in the past month  toward the local when it comes to the genre.While Spotify competes with the entrenched Indian streaming service JioSaavn, partly headquartered in Mumbai and specializing in Bollywood music , Mumbai’s demand for both Indian and Western music will prove to either be Spotify’s ace in the hole or rock in its shoe.OutroThat’s a wrap for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday, May 23nd, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Hope you’re not too jet-lagged from today’s Excursion Thursday, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

HighlightsIt’s Winner Wednesday again, and we’re looking at who’s hot on the Spotify and Deezer charts to examine just how global Europe’s biggest streaming services are?Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019.Winner Wednesday: Deezer & Spotify...who's more global?On today’s Winner Wednesday, we’re looking at who’s hot on Europe’s biggest streaming services, Spotify and Deezer, on their Top 200 Spotify and Top 100 Deezer track charts for May 20th. The #1 and #2 tracks are the same across both platforms, with “emerging artists” Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber taking the lead spot with “I Don’t Care”, tallying 58.4M streams on Spotify this week and having a 10/10 popularity score on Deezer. Holding strong for almost two months now, Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” occupies the #2 position on both apps, with 41.4M streams on Spotify this week and a 9.95/10 popularity score on Deezer currently. But starting from #3 down, the differences between Sweden’s Spotify and France’s Deezer are as wide as the North Sea in between them.For example, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road (Remix)” was 3rd on Spotify’s chart but only 9th on Deezer, where Daddy Yankee’s “Con Calma” took 3rd on Deezer but only 14th on Spotify.Shawn Mendes and the late Avicii both appear in each platform’s Top 10 in different places, but otherwise the tracks are completely different.Let’s look at the daily chart summaries: Billie Eilish has 13 songs on Spotify’s Top 200 chart, followed by Tyler, the Creator with 11, Post Malone with 8, with Cardi B and Khalid at 6 tracks each. On Deezer, a blast from the past: Neue Deutsche Härte (or German industrial metal) group Rammstein hold the top spot with 10 tracks in the Deezer Top 100 since their May 17th self-titled album release. For those that were of musical awareness in 1998, the German rockers managed to peak on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart at #20 and even appear on MTV’s Total Request Live, which was then the epicenter of US pop culture.Puerto Rico’s Ozuna followed Rammstein with 8 tracks in the Deezer Top 100, and fellow reggaeton kings Daddy Yankee, J Balvin and Anuel AA took the 3rd, 4th and 5th spot with 6 tracks each that day. Note that Spotify’s most placed artists this week are decidedly American, while Deezer’s winners are German, Colombian, and Puerto Rican. So, is Deezer the more global streaming service between the two?Well technically, yes: Deezer is operating in 187 countries compared to Spotify’s 79, though stateside, the now publicly-traded Spotify takes up most of our headlines.But remember: Deezer really just started expanding into the U.S. since 2016, and is privately owned by American conglomerate Access Industries, who also happens to own all of Warner Music Group. So keep your eyes peeled for different charts and each platform’s preferences, as it always helps to remember that no matter where your fans come from, Spotify, Deezer, YouTube, Apple Music, and Amazon listeners all buy the same concert ticket!OutroThat’s a wrap for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Have a winning Wednesday, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

HighlightsThis Technique Tuesday brings you a fresh way to take a bite out of your data by learning how to curate the curators, the streaming world’s sometimes mysterious movers and doers. Mission   No, this isn’t Jason with a cold; it’s Chartmetric’s newest voice, Rutger Rosenborg, and I’m happy to be here uploading charts, artists, and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world. DateThis is your Data Dump for Tuesday, May 21st, 2019.Technique Tuesday: Curating the CuratorsOn today’s Technique Tuesday, we’re bringing you a fresh way to take a bite out of your data with a spoonful of meta-curation. Curators are the sometimes mysterious movers and doers of the streaming world determining what’s hot, what’s not, and what might have a shot — and all with a playlist. It might not be a surprise to anyone that Apple and Spotify are themselves the biggest curators in the streaming world — after all, they control their own DSPs. Let’s look at the green giant, Spotify,  which has a whopping 7,000-plus self-curated playlists to its name…. with a staggering 1.1 billion followers. How does that work, if its total user count is something like 200 million, counting both premium and ad-based users? Well, users must like Spotify playlists enough to subscribe to tons of them.On the other side of the ring, despite its lower worldwide subscriber count, as a curator, Apple boasts more than twice the number of playlists than Spotify at around 17,500, all said and done.C’est tout? Non, less is more for French streaming service Deezer, which  interestingly features official curators composed of a combination of geographic or genre based anonymous “editors” and face-forward “editors” like Fabio from Brazil, Emilia from Romania, and Stanislav from Russia. While Deezer’s playlist count is low, on the order of 1,500 or so dispersed amongst some 40-odd official Deezer editors, each editor ranges from thousands to multi-millions of followers.There’s also Amazon’s mysterious Music Experts, who dictate all 2,800 playlists in their ecosystem, from “All Hits” to “Country Heat,” and “Pop Culture” to “I Miss the ‘90s.” “Cleaning the House” is a good one too, by the way.But we’re talking macro level here. Let’s get into the weeds. As a curator, Spotify is clearly geared toward frontline pop hits, with its “Today’s Top Hits” playlist absolutely dominating the platform in terms of both listenership, at an estimated 5.7 million a month, and also follower count, at 23.2 million. Apple Music, on the other hand, is a bit more evenly dispersed, with its Hip-Hop, Alternative, and Pop sub-curators sitting at around 1,300 playlists each. Jazz, Rock, Indie, and Country hover between 800 and 1,000. Deezer is a bit more difficult to parse, numbers wise, because its curation focus is more geographic based. Suffice it to say, you’re probably not going to want to hit up Fabio for a Country Western pitch anytime soon.Still too macro? Then it’s microscope time. What about those other curators — you know, the ones who aren’t necessarily funded by billion-dollar corporations.On second thought … Fltr, Digster, and Topsify are three of the biggest third-party playlist curators, and they’re owned by Sony, Universal, and Warner, respectively. While it’s no secret where their curation interests lie, there are still the classic DJ tastemakers like Dmitri Vegas & Like Mike, who boast close to 2 million EDM-focused followers, or market-specific influencers like Hugo Gloss with 1.4 million Brazil-focused followers.What’s clear here is that Spotify and Deezer are somewhat more democratic and accessible platforms for individual tastemakers with some skin in the game. Aside from prominent artists, individual users have managed to rack up hundreds of thousands of followers and exert influence on the playlist game. Apple Music and Amazon Music, on the other hand, have a tighter grip on the curation wheel, making their platforms more difficult to penetrate for third-party tastemakers. OutroThat’s a wrap for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday, May 21st, 2019. This is Rutger from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Have a good rest of your Tuesday, and long live King Bran the Broken!

HighlightsAmazon Music’s Brand New Music playlist features a few new Friday releases similar to Spotify and Apple, we’ve got the quick rundown for youMission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Monday May 20th 2019.New Music Friday Monday: Amazon’s Brand New Music playlistIt’s New Music Friday Monday and we’re looking at Amazon’s Brand New Music playlist that updated on Friday before the weekend.Brand New Music is essentially the tech giant’s version of Spotify’s New Music Friday, currently featuring 70 tracks from big stars to legacy acts to up and comers.In the #1 playlist position is the DJ Khaled’s latest track featuring John Legend and the late Nipsey Hussle on “Higher”. Halsey’s “Nightmare” pulls up in the #2 spot while The Black Keys make their comeback with the new single “Go”, coming into the #3 position.The three major labels have the most singles on the list this week, with UMG having 14, Sony at 11 and Warner Music at 7. However, there is no shortage of independent labels on the list either, with 4AD, 300 Entertainment and AOMG all representing with one track each.Genre-wise, about 30% of the playlist’s tracks feature the “pop” genre tag, the most out of all genres, with Madonna, Mark Ronson and Charli XCX feat. Lizzo in that group. “Hip-hop/rap” takes 2nd place with another 20% of the list’s sound with none other than Wu-Tang Clan debuting a new record to accompany their recently-released Showtime documentary series.EDM and rock have 6 and 5% of the tracks respectively to round things out, with Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum and Maddie & Tae contributing to the “country” genre tags for a total of 4% of the list.Brand New Music’s artists this week are mostly from English-speaking countries, almost 85% of it, which fits in nicely with the fact that 72% of the smart speaker market last year was solely based in the US and the UK.Between Spotify’s top 10 tracks on the New Music Friday and Brand New Music’s top 10, only 4 of the tracks overlap, coincidentally in the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 7th position.And if we throw in Apple Music’s equivalent playlist- Best of the Week- we have the 1st and 2nd position in common with the other two.So if you pulled up all three Global Release Day playlists on any of the platforms, you’re guaranteed to hear DJ Khaled and then Halsey, in that order.In all three, you’ll also end up hearing Lana Del Rey’s Sublime cover of “Doin’ Time”  before you hit track 6.There seems to be some slight experimentation going on: for example, you’ll hear Tyler the Creator on all platforms, but his track “WHAT’S GOOD” on Spotify and Amazon, while hearing “EARFQUAKE” on Apple.On the Latin front, Colombian rapper Maluma debuts a purely Spanish track “11 PM” on Amazon, while he shows off both Spanish and English vocals on another track, “Tu Vecina (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)” on Apple Music.Check out some of these interesting playlist differences for yourself before this Friday comes around!OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday May 20th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Monday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsIt’s Found on Friday: we dig up an American rapper, a Dutch DJ and Albanian pop star spiking in their Spotify Popularity Index.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Friday May 17th 2019.Found on Friday: MAJ, Adam Brown & XhensilaIt’s Found on Friday where we dip into our A&R tool to find emerging artists making their way into the public eye.If we search by the biggest change in Spotify Popularity Index (or SPI) in the past 28 days, we uncover three artists with very different backgrounds: Amercian rapper MAJ, Dutch DJ/producer Adam Brown and Albanian pop star Xhensila.I hope I’m saying these artists’ names correctly, here we go.Going from 1 to 39 SPI in the past month is MAJ, currently based out of Dallas, Texas, featuring “grunge-inflected production, soulful delivery, and nocturnal hip-hop with stark vulnerability and confessional storytelling.”With 155K Spotify monthly listeners and only 3K followers, this gives him a listeners to followers ratio of 51, which for a strong signal for him.From April 26th to May 3rd, he enjoyed a #47 slot on the 100-track New Music Friday playlist, which has 3.2M followers currently.MAJ is still enjoying a Spotify editorial playlist placement on the Shisha Lounge playlist at 375K followers, but more interestingly, he’s on 27 playlists with more than 10K followers that seem to be focused on sub-culture categories such as “sad” or “emo rap” or gaming culture playlists like EA Sports’ NHL franchise. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that these lower-tier playlists are likely playing a big part in MAJ’s strong rise on the platform.Adam Brown in the Netherlands currently has 11 dance music tracks on Spotify, with his latest track “Your Body” being what seems to be driving his SPI rise in the past month from 1 to 31.This increase isn’t from Spotify playlisting, as he’s on no editorial playlists, and his biggest one is currently “Dance Hits” by curator globalmusicx with only 6.5K followers.The reasons for his jump in SPI in late April is not clear, but by checking his Twitter, it may be from a more organic off-platform source via his own hosted local dance radio show or possibly from club play, given the very electronic music-oriented region and that his #2 and #3 top Spotify monthly listener cities are very locally Dutch: Ermelo and Harderwijk. Definitely butchered those names.Last but not least is pop star Xhensila from Albania, who represents the kind of “emerging artist” that is only emerging to the Spotify market, as Xhensila is already a big deal in her part of the world.In the past month, she jumped from an SPI of 2 to 56 despite having only 100 monthly listeners with 449 followers for a ratio under 1.Her most followed playlist, “Albanian Hits 2019” has 20K followers, but her six total tracks don’t seem to be generating that much attention playlisting wise.More than likely, Xhensila’s Spotify popularity is being generated by her 1.3M followers on Instagram, where her streaming link in her IG bio leads to Spotify. One of the lessons that can be gleaned here is that Spotify statistics are just Spotify statistics...Xhensila obviously is quite the star in Albania, further proven by her 154K YouTube followers and her nine very popular music videos there, the biggest one hitting 39M views to date.So we’ll leave you for the weekend with an American rapper, Dutch DJ and Albanian pop queen to explore...three different paths, three different vibes.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday May 17th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Friday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsIt’s Excursion Thursday and we’ll be exploring the music tastes of not London, not New York, not LA….but Quezon City. Don’t know where that is? Well, pack your bags.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Thursday May 16th 2019.Excursion Thursday: Quezon CityWe’re trying out a new segment called Excursion Thursday where we explore the music profile of a city or region and see what’s good.And for kicks, let’s start out with a city you may frequently see in your own streaming platform data but may not be that familiar with: Quezon City in the Philippines.If you’re not familiar with the Philippines, it’s a country in SE Asia. South of Taiwan, east of Vietnam, and north of Indonesia.It’s really thousands of islands that also feature two official languages: Tagalog and English. This is obviously important for the Western music market and definitely a factor in why the Philippines can play a huge part in how English language artists fare in the region.For example, American singer Khalid currently has the most Spotify monthly listeners on the entire Swedish platform at 49.6M.While his most popular Spotify cities are LA and London at 1M monthly listeners, and Chicago, Dallas and NYC between 800K to 1M...Quezon City silently pulls up in the #6 spot with a whopping 769K monthly listeners. Not bad for a city you might have not known about.Examples in other genres include rapper Travis Scott pulling 202K local monthly listeners and English pop rockers the 1975 featuring 126K themselves.Now, Quezon City sits adjacent to Manila, the country’s capital, and loosely speaking, is what Orange County is to Los Angeles, or what Brooklyn is to Manhattan: a bigger, heavily populated extension of its more popular sister city.Besides the language connection, part of what is likely driving such strong streaming activity specific to Quezon City is the fact that two of the country’s most popular universities- the University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila- are also located here.Some of the top artists by YouTube video daily views show more of a regional focus: K-pop supergroup BLACKPINK currently has 496K local daily views, BTS 215K and Korea/Japan-focused girl group TWICE at 136K.However Western artists still stand toe to toe, with Taylor Swift at 253K local daily views, Post Malone coming in at 127K and Brad Kane at 241K.Wait what? Who’s Brad Kane, you say? Well, if you were around for the original Disney animated movie Aladdin in 1992, he was the original singing voice for main character on the soundtrack.And how does this make sense in Quezon City? Well, if you don’t have any Filipino friends, suffice it to say that karaoke is a national pastime, and well, practicing the Disney hits are probably a part of what’s going on here.Now when it comes to Instagram, this is a whole other world. While in the States, Instagram is the natural social media backdrop to the music industry, Western artists just aren’t that popular for Quezon City citizens.As a matter of fact, the first Western music artist that shows up on our top followed IG artists is Hailee Steinfeld in 58th place at 62K. And before her are a legion of Filipino artists who, like Steinfeld, either bounce between the worlds of music/TV/film or make OPM.Now if you don’t know what OPM is, that stands for Original Pilipino Music, which stands next to the country’s love for Western music, as a matter of pride in their domestic artistry. It’s so popular that Spotify made an OPM hub that Music Ally wrote about back in February. The star playlist is called Tatak Pinoy, featuring OPM music and over 1M followers to date...check it out!So next time you see Quezon City in your streaming data, hopefully this will put some context to it...and while you’re at it, might as well license your tunes to Filipino karaoke bars posthaste!OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Thursday May 16th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Thursday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsIt’s Winner Wednesday and we’re looking at who got added to the most Apple Music playlists in the past 30 days...and the winner is the polar opposite of Taylor Swift!Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Wednesday May 15th 2019.Winner Wednesdays: Apple Music “Trending on Playlists”One chart that we like to check out occasionally is the “Trending on Playlists” chart that we compile here at Chartmetric.Trending on Playlists finds the tracks that were added to the most playlists in the past 30 days and sorts them in descending order.So we’re essentially looking at not just what the editorial playlists are doing, but also what the 3rd party curators are including to see what the platform’s entire user base is favoring. This is useful because it’s theoretically closer to what “the people” are interested in, as opposed to just what the platform itself is trying to promote.But in addition to that, it tends to uncover interesting mini-trends that are underway yet likely unnoticed. Let’s check this out for Apple Music. For yesterday, May 14th, we see a few things that are totally expected.For example, of the top 200 trending in playlists tracks, the #1 most popular genre tag is “pop” at 52 instances. Hardly surprising. Neither is the #2 genre tag, “hip-hop/rap” at 28 instances.When we look at the top most added tracks, we find familiar faces: Taylor Swift leads in the #1 slot with “ME! (feat. Brendon Urie)”, which was released about 3 weeks ago and added to 236 Apple Music playlists since then.Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber’s new “I Don’t Care” single was barely in 2nd place with 234 playlist adds and only released last week, and Shawn Mendes’ 2-week-old “If I Can’t Have You” comes in 3rd place with 223 playlist adds.The #4 and #5 entries show a significant dropoff at 123 and 101 adds respectfully, which go to Kygo and Rita Ora’s single off the new Pokémon movie soundtrack and Madonna’s recent Latin collaboration with Maluma.The rest of the top 200 are below 100 playlist adds and slope down more gently...this shows that at least for yesterday, the cumulative playlist adds are very focused on only a handful of tracks. A few spot checks earlier in 2019 show the same trend on Apple Music. So it’s good to be in the limelight….if you’re one of the chosen few.Another neat trend is about ¾ of the top 200 trending in playlists tracks are 1 week to 1 month old, and if you include the really new releases within 1 week, you are looking at 90% of the list.This is certainly expected as new releases would tend to be what’s added to the most playlists in the past 30 days.But what might be surprising is that 21 of these tracks are pre-releases, which is an Apple Music exclusive feature to date: Madonna and Maluma’s track, Mark Ronson’s new release with Lykke Li and 19 other tracks haven’t been officially released with their album, because those dates are still in the future.This goes to show that Apple is clearly using this new pre-release mechanism to great effect with some of the industry’ biggest names as something that helps Apple promote Apple, as well as artists pump up their stream counts and saves upon official album release.Last but not least, a third cool insight about trending on playlists are some of the lesser known music that gets highlighted: for example, the label with the most playlist adds yesterday was not a major, but indie label Moon Blanket Records with 25 tracks, far ahead of the second place label with only 10.Moon Blanket runs music for the two most added artists yesterday- Cover Kid with 15 adds and Filtered Light with 10- who respectively make relaxation music.Cover Kid’s playlist adds include piano soundtrack renditions from popular American animated films like “Up”, “Mulan” and “Inside Out”, while Filtered Light produces religious flute-oriented instrumental tracks.And if you think their adds don’t sound like much, Cover Kid has 518 unique track-playlist instances throughout the Apple Music ecosystem while Filtered Light has 859...which is pretty awesome for any act, let alone an indie label.So if you’re looking for some unique playlist behavior, feel free to check out any of our Trending on Playlist charts...and in the meantime, I’m going to go learn the flute.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Wednesday May 15th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Wednesday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsIt’s Technique Tuesday and you’re Carly Rae Jepsen booking a fall tour...how do you select your opening acts using data? Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Tuesday May 14th 2019.Technique Tuesday: Advanced Artist Filtering & Opening Act PlanningYou’re Carly Rae Jepsen, and you just had a super cool Rolling Stone music feature. Next up? Scheduling a tour, of course.You’re looking for a few emerging acts to reach out to that have a similar but different sound, a partially-common audience to boost ticket sales and availability to tour in Canada later this year.But how can we use data to do this? Well first things first, let’s take stock of how you’re doing.I’ve got 3.3M Spotify followers. If I look at my Neighboring Artists tool, I can see that Troye Sivan has about the same amount of followers...but 3x as many monthly listeners at 22M...he’s red hot! I can’t be out-shown. Carrie Underwood has about as many followers as me and less monthly listeners at 4.5M...but the genre-match probably isn’t so great since she’s country and I’m more disco-pop. Hmm, let me click out to 10 neighboring artists instead of 5….click, click...ooo! Fun.! I love fun. What have they been up to lately? I’ll give them a call.So what else can I do? How about the Advanced Filters in the Artist List tool? Sweet.So I know I’ve got about 8.5M Spotify monthly listeners and a 75 out of 100 on the Spotify Popularity Index. Pretty nice. Let’s search some artists slightly below those stats...let’s try 4 to 6M monthly listeners. Type type type click.333 artists returned, awesome! Who’ve we got….Desiigner at 6M listeners? Somehow, I think that could totally be cool, but who else we got?Nina Nesbitt! Love her! Her Popularity Index is at 72, right around me! Got to call her. Ooo, Sigrid at 5.6M listeners! Love that Norwegian pop, calling her...Tyler, the Creator?!  He’s at an 81 Popularity Index and 5.5M listeners...it’s a long shot, but what the heck, let’s try.How else can we get more people to call….well, I want to have a big first tour date in Vancouver because that’s where my formative years were, so let’s check the Cities Page for there. Click, click, click.Vancouver...alright, what have you been listening to lately?Looks like in the past 30 days, according to recent Shazam genre tags, it’s mostly pop with 28! Nice. Ooo, and in 3rd place is Dance with 13 tags. Done, Vancouver, I’m coming back home soon.Alright, who are some hometown heroes I can call?Nickelback? Ehh. Felix Cartal, who’s that? 2.7M monthly listeners, impressive. Let’s click through to his profile….oooo, disco vibes? Love it. On the list.Let’s see who else….oh Teagan and Sara?! Of course! Our fans totally crossover, how’d I not think of them. Done.Well let’s see...that’s six awesome, relevant artists to call up that we got in a few minutes’ work. Not bad, Chartmetric, not bad!OutroWhy thank you, Carly Rae! That’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Tuesday May 14th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsWho’s at the bottom of Spotify’s New Music Friday playlist? We’ll explore three acts who aren’t at the top of said list, but are succeeding in their own ways.Mission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Monday May 13th 2019.The Bottom of Spotify’s New Music FridayIt’s New Music Friday Monday, and in keeping with tradition, the top spots of Spotify’s premier Global Release Day playlist- New Music Friday (or NMF)- go to the industry’s biggest and brightest.Debuting to the list’s 3.2M followers, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber take the #1 spot with the dancehall-flavored pop track “I Don’t Care”, Logic and Gucci Mane’s “Icy” takes the #2 position, and the late Avicii and crew occupy the #3 spot with the dance record “Tough Love.”But Spotify’s NMF is 100 tracks long...so who’s at the bottom of the list and what are they up to?Let’s take a look at three acts occupying the bottom 10%: Emotional Oranges in the 93rd, Vince Gill in the 95th and Dutch Melrose in the 100th spot.Soulful, chill vibes duo Emotional Oranges seems to be the type of artist you’d expect to find here: a new group with a distinct, trendy sound with a growing reputation.At 722K monthly listeners and 22K followers, this gives them a listeners to follower ratio of 32, which is great for any emerging artist. Their amount of monthly listeners puts them in the same ballpark as Hyolyn and ZICO, two well-known Korean artists who are still growing their fan bases outside of East Asia, as well as veteran singer-songwriters Natalie Merchant and Billy Bragg. For a new emerging act, this kind of company bodes well for Emotional Oranges, as it shows they are already getting the kind of play that current overseas stars and legacy artists with long-established followings are earning.Vince Gill in the 95th position of the New Music Friday list is another legacy artist, but from the country world. One of the genre’s brightest stars in the 1990s, he has a room full of Country Music Awards and Grammys to show for it and surely has nothing left to prove.But given Mother’s Day was just yesterday, Gill’s timely ballad “A Letter to My Mama” came out with quite the heartfelt sentiment which earned its placement in Spotify’s list.Vince Gill’s 1.1M monthly listeners and 251K followers give him a smaller ratio of about 5, which makes sense given his decades-long career, which will raise his follower count on any platform due to his established public profile alone. Given that country isn’t the strongest genre on Spotify, this also lowers the available market Gill has to stream to.Nonetheless, Gill’s monthly listener count puts him in same realm as Lin-Manuel Miranda, who’s star is super-bright but currently off-cycle in terms of recent releases, as well as Broadway star Bette Midler whose work needs little promotion to her fans who already know her work well.Last but not least in the 100 spot on New Music Friday is LA-based producer Dutch Melrose with the electronic track “White Wine”.Dutch Melrose has 341 followers on Spotify...not 341 thousand, but actually 341, which might be quite unexpected for any artist getting a track onto the NMF playlist.He does have over 20K monthly listeners however, likely coming from PopFiltr’s Young and Hot playlist with 345K followers in the #2 position and over 20 other non-editorial playlists he’s placed on.This gives him a listener to follower ratio of about 60, which is a great sign for any artist, though a little less meaningful with such a low follower count. However, this also does indicate an opportunity for a viral fanbase, if he’s able to engage potential fans via Instagram and other platforms.All things said, to grab any spot on Spotify’s New Music Friday as an independent artist with not even 400 followers is quite the feat! Good luck to him, Vince Gill and Emotional Oranges as they enjoy the rest of the week on NMF.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Monday May 13th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Monday, see you tomorrow!

HighlightsAmazon Music’s Top 100 Country chart features a wide selection of artists, but their long time on chart suggests a wider platform trend towards stagnancy in several genresMission   Good morning, it’s Jason here at Chartmetric with your 3-minute Data Dump where we upload charts, artists and playlists into your brain so you can stay up on the latest in the music data world.DateThis is your Data Dump for Friday May 10th 2019.Amazon Music: Top 100 Songs - CountryOn the Amazon Music Top Songs Country chart yesterday, Lil Nas X took the #1 spot with the Billy Ray Cyrus collaboration “Old Town Road”, spending 30 days there so far. North Carolina’s Luke Combs took the #2 spot with the ballad “Crazy Beautiful”, only its second day on the chart, despite being released a year ago.And the heartbroken lyrics of “Whiskey Glasses” kept its current chart peak at #3 from Tennessee’s Morgan Wallen, after living on the chart for 69 days.The Top 100 tracks on the chart feature several artists with a handful records among them: for example, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Dan + Shay, Florida Georgia Line and Kane Brown all have four tracks charting, while Luke Combs, Maren Morris, Brett Young, Luke Byran and Chris Stapleton all have three.Label-wise, the Top 100 also are well-distributed, with Columbia Nashville taking 10 of the tracks, Capitol Records Nashville with 9, and Warner Bros., Broken Bow and RCA Records Nashville all taking 8 tracks each.Time on Chart & the Alexa-Genre ComplexIn terms of time on chart, the Amazon Top Country 100 is fairly stagnant: 86 of the tracks have been there for at least one month, with 22 of them there for a year and a half! That’s nearly a quarter of a Top 100 chart not changing, and a sign of what I’ll playfully call for now the Alexa-Genre Complex.For one of America’s most popular and productive genres, this is fairly bad news for any emerging country artists that are fighting to squeeze into the Alexa-driven platform, while obviously great news for the few top artists benefitting from a stagnant chart.If we take a look at a few other Amazon genres, this chart behavior is surprisingly consistent: the Dance/Electronic genre features 87 tracks in its Top 100 that have charted for more than a month with 26 for more than 1.5 years, while 86 records in Rap & Hip Hop charted for a month plus, with 25 for more than 1.5 years.The Pop genre also follows suit with 85 tracks for more than a month and 20 for more than 1.5 years.It’s almost clockwork how predictable the charts are irrelevant of the genre, and likely says something about Amazon algorithmic behavior rather than each audience’s listening preferences, which would presumably show some sort of differentiation.When aggregating all the genres however, the trend somewhat weakens, with only 71 of the top tracks being 1-month plus, which suggests that this trend might be coded just for genre, and is a cascading effect from genre-focused playlisting. This would make sense given that when Alexa is engaged, user utterances would likely be something like “Alexa, play some country music” or something similar and giving those top artists more stream time. (sorry if I just triggered your Alexa)Another interesting takeaway is how most of the 1.5-year plus tracks stack towards the top third of the chart, and almost exclusively in the Top 50, meaning that the bottom half of the Amazon charts tends to be more fluid. So if you’re an emerging artist, expect your success on Amazon Music to be mostly all in or virtually nothing, and if you’re the small population getting lukewarm play, maybe it’s time to make some calls to push that track into that coveted upper Alexa stratosphere.OutroThat’s it for your Daily Data Dump for Friday May 10th 2019. This is Jason from Chartmetric.Free accounts are at app.chartmetric.com/signupAnd article links and show notes are at: podcast.chartmetric.com.Happy Friday, have a great weekend!