In the US, the RIAA (who are the official certification organization) calculates streaming equivalents as 150 streams = 1 song sale and 1500 streams = 1 album sale. (For Billboard charting purposes, the calculations are 125 paid streams = 375 free streams = 1 song sale and 1250 paid streams = 3750 free streams - 1 album sale.)

 

However, I was wondering if anyone has any knowledge on certification streaming equivalents in other countries - I feel like stans (myself included in the past) just take the WW streaming data on Spotify and YouTube and calculate the WW streaming equivalents of a song or album based on the US methodology listed above, which isn't correct since each country has a different method of calculating these equivalents. I was hoping this thread could be a place where people could post this information for different countries with receipts for use as a database for anyone trying to calculate SPS for their faves. (I plan on updating the OP with this info as it (hopefully) gets posted). The only other certification organizations I know of are the IFPI for worldwide stats and the Official Charts Company for UK certifications (and perhaps Oricon does Japan's certifications too, not sure on that one though).

 

TL;DR: Anyone know what the song/album streaming equivalent methodology is for each country/WW?

"The Official UK Chart is calculated by sales as well as both music and videostreams, with a variable streaming ratio depending on whether the user has a free or paid subscription. This means that 100 paid streams will equal one sale, as will 600 free streams."

1 minute ago, Kylie Jenner said:

"The Official UK Chart is calculated by sales as well as both music and videostreams, with a variable streaming ratio depending on whether the user has a free or paid subscription. This means that 100 paid streams will equal one sale, as will 600 free streams."

Thank you!  I'm assuming this is for songs, do they also publish their methodology for albums? ?

Australia's ARIA charts calculates 175 streams of a single/song as 1 sale. I think it's the same for albums too where 175 streams of the entire album equals 1 album sale.

1 minute ago, Moth 2 The Flame said:

Australia's ARIA charts calculates 175 streams of a single/song as 1 sale. I think it's the same for albums too where 175 streams of the entire album equals 1 album sale.

Really?  That seems...not right though that they'd use the same criteria for albums - do you have receipts? ? I can try to look into it too later if not.

15 minutes ago, E r o s said:

Thank you!  I'm assuming this is for songs, do they also publish their methodology for albums? ?

the OCC takes the top 12 streamed tracks from an album and takes the top two most-streamed tracks and brings it down to the average of the next ten tracks.

 

so if an album has streams of:
 

#1 - 1 000 000

#2 - 980 000

#3 - 700 000

#4 - 600 000

#5 - 550 000

#6 - 500 000

#7 - 400 000

#8 - 320 000

#9 - 300 000

#10 - 120 000

#11 - 110 000

#12 - 100 000

 

the mean of the tracks #3-#12 is 370 000. so, the streams then become:

 

#1 - 370 000

#2 - 370 000

#3 - 700 000

#4 - 600 000

#5 - 550 000

#6 - 500 000

#7 - 400 000

#8 - 320 000

#9 - 300 000

#10 - 120 000

#11 - 110 000

#12 - 100 000

 

THEN, the streams are added up and divided by 1000. this is 4440 total SEA units, btw.

 

src: https://www.officialcharts.com/media/656891/official-uk-album-chart-rules-july-2019.pdf

 

---------------------

 

in france, they only count premium streams. they take all premium streams of the album, halve the most-listened to track, and then divide it by 1500. as simple as. http://www.snepmusique.com/les-certifications/

Edited August 21, 20197 yr by eaucitronnée

Go here - https://help.musicinsights.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000779253-Consumption

 

Go to General -> click on 3rd option

 

Most of the ratios hold except some countries which updated their certifications this year like India for example where its 100 audio streams = 1 sale and 300 video streams = 1 sale instead of 100 and 500 before.

 

 

Just now, E r o s said:

Really?  That seems...not right though that they'd use the same criteria for albums - do you have receipts? ? I can try to look into it too later if not.

https://www.ariacharts.com.au/news/2017/audio-streams-to-be-integrated-into-aria-albums-ch

 

Quote

SEA Calculation

1.    The two tracks attracting most streams are reduced to the level of the average of the next eight highest streamed tracks associated with the album (or all tracks where an album has fewer than ten tracks). This ensures that albums with one or two hit singles do not distort the performance of an album within the albums chart.

2.    After the methodology above is applied, the streams of the top ten tracks (or all tracks where an album has fewer than ten tracks) making up the album are aggregated together and converted using the streaming conversion factor established for the singles 1:175 and the widely used rate of ten tracks = one album.

Youtube streams do not count, they are only counted for the streaming audio visual tracks charts and is not included in the overall calculations.

 

https://www.ariacharts.com.au/charts/streaming-audio-visual-tracks-chart

 

Also, I don't think ARIA separates free and paid-premium streams for different weighting for the charts as well. 

This article on Chartmasters covers quite a few countries:

http://chartmasters.org/2018/03/rubbish-alert-the-ed-sheerans-divide-sold-under-11-million-thing/

 

Quote

Audio streams conversion: In the US, Soundscan combine 100% of streams of 100% of songs and then divide them by 1,500. In the UK, only the top 12 tracks are considered and the Top 2 are weighted down to the average of the next 10 songs, then the total number of streams is divided by 1,000. In France, the top track is divided by 2 and the cumulative streams are divided by 1,000. In Australia, only the Top 10 tracks are considered, the Top 2 are downgraded to the average of the next 8 and total streams are divided by 1,750.

 

Edited August 21, 20197 yr by Letemtalk
formatting add info

1 minute ago, Moth 2 The Flame said:

https://www.ariacharts.com.au/news/2017/audio-streams-to-be-integrated-into-aria-albums-ch

 

Youtube streams do not count, they are only counted for the streaming audio visual tracks charts and is not included in the overall calculations.

 

https://www.ariacharts.com.au/charts/streaming-audio-visual-tracks-chart

 

Also, I don't think ARIA separates free and paid-premium streams for different weighting for the charts as well. 

ARIA also has some weird rule where they only count 3 streams per track from a single person per day

In France, according to the SNEP (the official french certification organization), song sales are transformed in equivalent streams and album streams are transformed in equivalent sales. It's so weird... 

• 1 song sale = 150 streams
• 1500 streams = 1 album sales

They only count premium streams for the charts/certifications.

And for the certifications:

• Gold: 15M equivalent streams (singles) l 50k equivalent sales (albums)
• Platinum: 30M equivalent streams (singles) l 100k equivalent sales (albums)
• 2x Platinum: 200k equivalent sales (albums)
• 3x Platinum: 300k equivalent sales (albums)
• Diamond: 50M equivalent streams (singles)  l 500k equivalent sales (albums)

Source: http://www.snepmusique.com/les-certifications/

 

Italy and Netherlands: 1/130 but only premium streams

Norway, Denmark, Sweden: 1/100 all streams

Poland: 1/250 all streams

Brazil: 1/500 all streams

Hungary: 1/100 premium streams and 1/500 freemium

 

These are for songs. All no YouTube.

Edited August 21, 20197 yr by KillingYourCareer

Aye, some of these are pretty complicated.  But thank you @Kylie Jenner, @Moth 2 The Flame, @eaucitronnée, @marsblyr, @Letemtalk, @navycat, and @KillingYourCareer for the info.

 

1 hour ago, marsblyr said:

Go here - https://help.musicinsights.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000779253-Consumption

 

Go to General -> click on 3rd option

 

Most of the ratios hold except some countries which updated their certifications this year like India for example where its 100 audio streams = 1 sale and 300 video streams = 1 sale instead of 100 and 500 before.

Oh wow, this is incredibly helpful, thank you! However, it looks like they're listing the streaming equivalents for weekly charting purposes, which concerns me because those are not always the same as the streaming equivalents used for certification purposes, which is more what this thread was geared towards since that's what's used to see how much a song has sold/how many units its moved. 

Oh, I forgot to say that in Denmark, radio airplay counts for certifications: the ratio is 1/5000 calculated based on audience!

3 minutes ago, E r o s said:

Oh wow, this is incredibly helpful, thank you! However, it looks like they're listing the streaming equivalents for weekly charting purposes, which concerns me because those are not always the same as the streaming equivalents used for certification purposes, which is more what this thread was geared towards since that's what's used to see how much a song has sold/how many units its moved. 

India hasn't issued certifications in over a decade... maybe they'll resume them when their chart is launched at the end of the year?

1 hour ago, KillingYourCareer said:

Italy and Netherlands: 1/130 but only premium streams

Norway, Denmark, Sweden: 1/100 all streams

Poland: 1/250 all streams

Brazil: 1/500 all streams

Hungary: 1/100 premium streams and 1/500 freemium

 

These are for songs. All no YouTube.

Since March 2017, certifications are based on revenue, not on the amount of streams.

In Brazil the SPS is calculated by the total of streams (YouTube + Spotify) and ÷ 500. Ex:

 

YouTube streams: 50.000.000

Spotify streams: 50.000.000

 

TOTAL: 100.000.000 / 500 = 200,000 sales