WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

Biz-watchers wonder about the potential impact of the Bible’s decision to rejigger the weighting of streams for its charts. With ad-supported streams (3,750:1) slated to have 1/3 the value of subscription streams (1,250:1), the project totals for releases relying heavily on the free tiers will decline. YouTube views will continue to be factored into the Hot 100 but not the Top 200.

Ad-supported streams account for 23% of the combined Spotify-Apple total and 33% of all Spotify streams, while Spotify premium and Apple contribute 48% and 29% of combined streams, respectively. With the changes, paid-only services would see an increase; services with both paid and ad-supported tiers could see a net reduction in SEA if ad-supported streams exceeded 25% of their total.

It would appear that most releases will see a 5-10% spike in first-week numbers, as paid streams tend to predominate in the early weeks of release; this will boost everyone’s numbers. Both Apple and the rights holders believe the changes are a step in the right direction.