Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Friday Music: The Soft Tyranny of Streaming

bob daktari

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 09:36:11 +1200

I love streaming... and reckon the chart should treat a stream with the same merit as a sale, for if charts are a measure of behavior then surely behavior (actual popularity) should be the determiner not the $$ value back to the rights holder or more precisely the mechanical rights…

Rich of Observationz

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 18:22:11 +1200

There are still charts? Poptastic!

Alan Perrott

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 16:35:12 +1200

this isn't helping discussion at all, but I can't say I've paid any attention what so ever to the charts since I was a young fulla watching Ready to Roll.

still, it might be interesting to know how many people make musical decisions based on where a track is charting.…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 13:51:23 +1200

f the Top 20 this week
How come it is dated 27th of June – do they know the future?

Ben Howe

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 13:47:34 +1200

Yes thanks for the post as well Paul. I'm just copying something I also put on FB here

As you know, charts are fundamentally mostly promotional tools. So for me the issue is that the new methodology will mostly wipe out much in the way of diversity – in particular…

Russell Brown

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 12:11:42 +1200

Thanks for the useful and comprehensive response, Paul.

Paul Kennedy

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 22:10:32 +1200

Yes, streaming now makes a contribution to the Official Top40 Albums Chart. And as you rightly say Russell, it has been an inevitability for a while. The UK, US, Germany, France, Scandanavia (naturally) have all done this. Australia will soon. There’s no getting away from the fact that for a…

Ben Howe

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 16:29:05 +1200

If the reason to introduce streaming was to make the album charts accurate to people's actual music consumption, then they should have gone the whole hog and included the oldies back catalog.

However, they weren't included because the charts are much more a promotional tool than anything else, and if…

Robyn Gallagher

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 15:47:51 +1200

So someone streaming Led Zeppelin on his I-Phone is now influencing the singles and album charts

I believe there's a three-year age limit for streamed tracks, so golden oldies will only show up if they've been purchased in big enough numbers on iTunes, which tends to happen when a popstar…

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 15:45:42 +1200

More on the Chart compilation:
At the end of an isolated gravel road in the hills south of Cape Kidnappers in Hawke's Bay lives a man in a cottage who reveals the nation's weekly Top 40 music chart.
Surrounded by sheep and cattle traipsing through tree-lined paddocks and rolling hills…

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 15:25:46 +1200

This is good for watching the Brexit vote finale...
http://www.bbc.com/news/politics/eu_referendum

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 14:42:33 +1200

Only an hour and a bit left to pick up these marvellous early Flying Nun artefacts
:- )

Logan O'Callahan

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:48:31 +1200

People streaming aren't usually making an individual purchase choice for each track they listen too – because it's usually an all you can eat type of service .

So someone streaming Led Zeppelin on his I-Phone is now influencing the singles and album charts, but the same person listening to…

Mike O'Connell

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:31:05 +1200

could see myself standing in a field slightly altered and really getting into ELO.

That reminded me of ...Violinksi, an ELO spin-off, a vehicle for Mik Kaminski, ELO's violinist at the time. I think you'd have to be in a really altered state to enjoy this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIjNJfFECes

Russell Brown

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:09:50 +1200

Thanks for that, Ken. How awful.

I saw Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan years ago at Womad in the UK. It was quite an experience.

Ken Double

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:58:45 +1200

My eldest and his girlfriend are calf deep in the Somerset mud right now. Being a bit of a festival-phobe I'm not that jealous. But then I'm not getting to see Grimes or Mbongwana Star either.

On a more sober matter, I had a look this week at the music…

Russell Brown

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:46:37 +1200

But each week, literally half the chart is songs by Six60,

In a victory for diversity, only eight of the Top 20 this week are songs by Six60.

Ben Howe

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:35:50 +1200

It also means there probably isn't a lot of point in smaller independent music retailers (like Flying Out) submitting our figures every week to the chart because now nothing we actually sell is likely to appear in them.

Robyn Gallagher

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:29:31 +1200

That looks like it’s going to be more difficult now, with big acts and back-catalogue works likely to fare well courtesy of streaming listeners who don’t react so swiftly to new releases.

This is similar to what has already happened in the singles chart. Music by New Zealand artists just…

Public Address

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 12:29:31 +1200

Discussion from blog post.