But are they doing it right?

"The weekly chart will combine album and track sales with audio and video streams, assigning an equivalent-album value to each, as in the TEA metric, theoretically providing a more accurate and comprehensive representation of modern-day music consumption ...

What this all means is that artists who do well with physical album sales and digital downloads could be significantly diminished in this new system, while artists who primarily have their music heard through streaming methods will see a significant boost. This could immediately put older artists, and independent artists at a significant disadvantage."

Big (bad?) impact of the new Consumption Chart

It's all over forget about it. The charts as well as the hit model is dead and the dinosaurs are desperately trying hard to keep it going. Streaming has killed this model and artists need to wake up and change their approach. For example, I spent the best part of last week creating a playlist and streaming all the tracks of one of my favourite artists Maxi Priest. I streamed it day and night and enjoyed many tracks I had not heard before. I would have streamed his tracks around 500 times in the week earning him a nice $5 in the process. I make a habit of streaming an album worth of tracks by an artist whom I have discovered or come across.

Where does this leave artists? Well it's a no brainer, you will not make money from your hits and we should now switch to the film model of trailers to sell the whole film, and use the hits or part thereof to draw people to your playlist or body of work which is where you will make the most money from. There is money in streaming but only if you use the playlist model. The same thing goes for Youtube.

We are entering a new era of possibilities with online music consumption and the old rules are gone forever. The lengths people go to hype a track into the charts is ludicrous as unless you have a body of work you have no chance of making any money. You would have to promote the hit and the return from that is non-existent. This is why Taylor Swift and co think windowing is the answer. However it will only work until the album is released. After it is released, the streaming/playlist model has to be the priority.

DJKZ is correct. I've long said the charts are completely irrelevant to a real career in 2014.

Physical product? Are they kidding?


Interesting to note that Adele has twice the numbers of Taylor Swift in the States, without any hype or social media. Possibly because Adele can sing and write for real.


Bottom line is that real talent will always win, and people can smell hype.

Swift is the "Elephant in the Room" in the music business.