The Chart Toppers

[Marsbar]

I have never bothered much with Music Charts. Probably because I've always believed they where bull-shit. In particular Billboard. I've never known any radio station that actually believed in Billboard. And now comes this story from David Farrell...

By David Farrell Fri, 10/09/2015 - 06:30

Music charts used to be simple affairs that gave one a snapshot of what was hot and what was bubbling under. This is no longer the case. Take the Canadian Albums Chart. It's galling but the only place one can find what's supposedly hot in Canada is by viewing the chart online on American trade magazine Billboard's website. There isn't a media outlet in Canada that I know of that publishes the Canadian charts, leaving most Canadians without a clue about who's hot at home.

True, one can view hourly charts online at the iTunes store, or on Amazon.ca — but neither is truly representative of the market as a whole. The iTunes charts only report on digital downloads, and Amazon.ca's music department only sells CDs and vinyl.

What's more, the Billboard charts that are compiled by data aggregator SoundScan are sliced and diced to the point where the actual compilations themselves are becoming questionable. For instance, one would expect the best sellers list to compile the best sellers, but in fact catalogue titles are spun out of the list into a separate chart, and then there's the whole business of the charts in the US now adding music streams to the calculation.

It's a mess, and it's scandalous that there isn't a single place in Canada that Canadians can turn to to see what is charting in Canada. It's something that the national trade association used to provide, that The Record once made available and now has become the purview of those that can afford to licence the information. After the Canoe website opted out of paying fees, Canada's charts are all but invisible.

It's one heck of void when one's marketing music, but that doesn't seem to have been an issue to those who do for the past five or so years since Canoe dropped paying the fee.

All this is leading to another can of worms: What data should be included in chart data? I believe that if streaming data is to be included, as it is now, then ticket sales should be as well. After all, live is where the money is, and streaming seems to be more about freebies and IPOs.

Then there's Andrea Powell from SeatSmart, an American online ticket vendor that operates in much the same way as Expedia in offering the lowest price possible to fans. Powell sets out a convincing argument for including illegal downloads in the chart mix in a lengthy feature on Hypebot that is reprinted in Celebrity Access.

It's a sobering read that should but probably won't generate much discussion about how charts are compiled, and what data is included. Then again, mainstream charts are becoming more invisible and curated playlists are rapidly becoming the standard by which others choose to measure what's hot and what's not. Without those bible-worthy charts though the measure of success becomes clouded, the big picture becomes obscured, and the fragmentation of music becomes more and more pronounced, even as pre-recorded music sales sink and ownership of anything becomes...well, unimportant.

[Sunbeam]

sad but true. Whatever happened to RPM magazine? Canadian Charts?