It's been doing wonders in the US & UK Charts lately..

 

Ellie Goulding topped UK Charts with RIVER, but

 

itunes - N/A

Spotify - N/A

AM - N/A

Streaming Chart (Amazon Music Exclusive? & YT) - #10

 

also.. the Christmas Songs are unusually smashing in the first week of December... for example AIFCIY & RATCT was outside of top10 in the US (Spotify&AM&itunes) last  Nov.29-Dec.5,,2019 but both sneaked into the top10 during that week allegedly thanks to Amazon Music.. (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

what is happening? 

Edited December 28, 20196 yr by Cryptique

It’s not misreporting numbers but it’s influencing. A LOT of people now request music plays through Alexa and it feels like an Amazon exclusive will now get bumped up when someone does this. 
 

my family legit kept asking Alexa to play Christmas music during the holidays. 

Not exactly, but it's definitely adding an unexpected angle to the charts: passive music listening with the same influence/weight as paid streams, which was supposed to be an answer to lessen the weight of passive listening methods like Pandora and the like. Not saying everyone who uses Amazon Music uses it passively, but that type of listening is why xmas music is moving these huge overall numbers with only a fraction coming from Spotify and YouTube.

22 minutes ago, Pop Art said:

Not exactly, but it's definitely adding an unexpected angle to the charts: passive music listening with the same influence/weight as paid streams, which was supposed to be an answer to lessen the weight of passive listening methods like Pandora and the like. Not saying everyone who uses Amazon Music uses it passively, but that type of listening is why xmas music is moving these huge overall numbers with only a fraction coming from Spotify and YouTube.

Streams that originate from DSP owned playlists should be categorized as programmed streams tbh just like pandora radio. User owned playlists and streams that user specifically seeks to listen to has to be separated some how.

Shady indeed. 

Capitol — take notes.

Alexa's changing the whole way of consuming music 

1 hour ago, marsblyr said:

Streams that originate from DSP owned playlists should be categorized as programmed streams tbh just like pandora radio. User owned playlists and streams that user specifically seeks to listen to has to be separated some how.

 

I agree that something should be done but not this. There's a difference between someone looking at a DSP curated playlist and deciding they like it and these stunts Amazon is pulling.

Asking Alexa to play you a certain kind of music is definitely no different to pandora, and we saw Amazon abuse it this year.

Edited December 28, 20196 yr by gngzack
Fixed typos

it's kinda same with playlist tho.

alexa paly christmas music VS click christmas playlist.

They were so smart doing this, but I'm not okay with it. Manipulating the charts won't give Ellie her career back.

Smart labels always find some kind of loophole

It's no fraud ala tidal. Just people using their Alexas for music

7 hours ago, marsblyr said:

Streams that originate from DSP owned playlists should be categorized as programmed streams tbh just like pandora radio. User owned playlists and streams that user specifically seeks to listen to has to be separated some how.

I wouldn't go that far though to be honest. There's still a major difference between the two – those listening to an Amazon owned playlist can skip through songs they don't like, whereas someone listening to a Pandora can't (if my understanding is correct), which is why Billboard has always downweighted streams from them. Even though the way Amazon Music is generally consumed (through Alexa/Echo products) is more akin to a Pandora listening experience than one on Spotify/Apple Music, it's unfair to categorize all streams from one service as such when that's not always the case. Billboard actually shot themselves in the foot in a way because since Amazon Music streams are all paid, they're given a higher weight, even though this specific service arguably has the most passive listeners (especially around the holidays). I don't really know how this could be solved in a fair way to be honest.

Amazon music is having explosive growth rn due to the massive sales of echo products

Not really a Tidal, they're just forcing Amazon exclusives onto their subscribers (i.e. Cozy Little Christmas).