Rolling Stone Charts

[iHype.]

Top 100 Songs: www.rollingstone.com/charts/songs
Top 200 Albums: www.rollingstone.com/charts/albums
Top 500 Artists: www.rollingstone.com/charts/artists


Trending 25: www.rollingstone.com/charts/trending
Breakthrough 25: www.rollingstone.com/charts/breakthrough


The data supplier is BuzzAngle Music (now known as Alpha Data); who has been tracking and publishing charts since 2014/2015. (Which explains why there's already years of history)

The Rolling Stone 100 keeps track of the most popular songs in the United States each week, counting track streams across the major music-streaming providers as well as digital and physical purchases. It does not count passive listening, such as plays on terrestrial or digital radio. This chart is updated daily and finalized each week with an official version of the seven-day period ending on the previous Thursday.

The Rolling Stone 200 logs the most popular albums today. The chart ranks consumption using physical and digital album sales, song sales and audio streams. This chart is updated daily and finalized on Monday each week with a default display of the final tally from the prior week.

The Rolling Stone Artists 500 offers a look at the most in-demand artists of the week by audio streams — a metric representative of the most popular way the American audience listens to music these days. This artist chart does not include passive listening in its measurement. The chart is updated daily and finalized each week with an official snapshot of the prior week.


The Rolling Stone Trending 25 ranks new songs that are seeing the greatest gains in popularity each week, measured by percentage growth in audio streams. Rather than tallying the most popular songs by total consumption, the Trending chart offers a truly in-the-moment view of music by highlighting tracks picking up the most momentum, week over week. This chart only includes songs released in the last 12 months. Data populates on a daily basis, and the chart is finalized with an official snapshot once a week.

The Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25 highlights rising artists who are appearing on the charts for the very first time, offering a preview of the biggest stars of tomorrow. It measures audience demand by audio streams — the most reflective metric of today’s music landscape — and does not include passive listening. Only artists who have not appeared in the Artist 500 chart before are eligible. This chart, which is similar to the Trending 25 but measures fast-rising artists rather than songs, updates with new data on a daily basis; official versions of the chart are finalized at the end of each month.

[owenlovesmusic]

It has Wow's peak as #15...
No Guidance at #2
You Need To Calm Down at #1
bad guy at #1
Earfquake at #2

Interesting.

[moonlite]

Their website interface is great and I like how they display the numbers for everything. I don't like the peaks being daily instead of weekly tho

[iHype.]

Jul 2, 2019 17:36:49 GMT -5 owenlovesmusic said:

It has Wow's peak as #15...
No Guidance at #2
You Need To Calm Down at #1
bad guy at #1
Earfquake at #2

Interesting.

I think some artists just have incorrect stats. For example, Beerbongs & Bentleys also shows a peak of #7. Yet we know it did over 400K first week so.

That was the issue with BuzzAngle (the data supplier of this chart) when they ran their own charts too. There would always be a few songs/albums clearly incorrect on their chart. Last week Money in the Grave wasn't even on their chart the whole release week. 

[owenlovesmusic]

Happier is at #55 with 41 weeks on the chart.

No recurrent rule? I hope so.

[Deleted]

Streaming must be weighted way more than radio since Talk and Sucker are not even top 10...

[owenlovesmusic]

also,
Better Now at #78 with 58 weeks charting
I Like It at #96 with 59 weeks charting

[owenlovesmusic]

Jul 2, 2019 17:45:20 GMT -5 @pete said:

Streaming must be weighted way more than radio since Talk and Sucker are not even top 10...

I Dont Care as well. Down at #17.

[Golden Bluebird]

Jul 2, 2019 17:45:20 GMT -5 @pete said:

Streaming must be weighted way more than radio since Talk and Sucker are not even top 10...

From their Top 100 Songs page:

The Rolling Stone Top 100 is a song chart that ranks popular songs from today's most popular artists. Songs are ranked by Song Units, a number that combines audio streams and song sales using a custom weighting system. The song chart does not include any passive listening, such as terrestrial or digital radio.

[iHype.]

Jul 2, 2019 17:45:20 GMT -5 @pete said:

Streaming must be weighted way more than radio since Talk and Sucker are not even top 10...

Radio isn't included. It's a sales+streaming chart basically, like UK's chart. 

The Rolling Stone 100 keeps track of the most popular songs in the United States each week, counting track streams across the major music-streaming providers as well as digital and physical purchases. It does not count passive listening, such as plays on terrestrial or digital radio.

Each Song Unit total is calculated as follows: (Digital Song Sales) + [(On-Demand Audio Subscription Streams + On-Demand Video Subscription Streams)/120] + [(On-Demand Audio Ad-Supported Streams + On-Demand Video Ad-Supported Streams)/360].

[sam8432]

If Señorita is a debut, how does it have a number 1 peak with two weeks on the chart? I assume the number 1 peak is for the daily chart, but what is that doing on a weekly chart? Same with Lil Nas X’s tracks.

Better Now’s Peak is 67, which I have a hard time believing. Sure, it was radio-driven for some of its Billboard run, but not by that much.

[jodakyellow]

Looks like they haven't quite figured out Featured Artists yet... #95 on the artist chart is "Lil Nas X, Cardi B"


Lizzo's 'Cuz I Love You' is suffering on their Albums Chart (compared to Billboard, anyway) from the bonus tracks (namely, "Truth Hurts," not being included).

[owenlovesmusic]

Jul 2, 2019 17:59:32 GMT -5 sam8432 said:

If Señorita is a debut, how does it have a number 1 peak with two weeks on the chart? I assume the number 1 peak is for the daily chart, but what is that doing on a weekly chart? Same with Lil Nas X’s tracks.

Daily peaks.

[thabb]

Jul 2, 2019 18:19:38 GMT -5 jodakyellow said:

Looks like they haven't quite figured out Featured Artists yet... #95 on the artist chart is "Lil Nas X, Cardi B"


Lizzo's 'Cuz I Love You' is suffering on their Albums Chart (compared to Billboard, anyway) from the bonus tracks (namely, "Truth Hurts," not being included).

they have Cardi B with 23.2mil streams last week when the songs on the Songs 100 chart indicates she has at least 58.9mil streams from the songs charting there alone. it's more than features, they just have things out of wack in general with the Albums and Artists charts

like, am i meant to believe this:

[Okay]

I'm glad the charts are finally up, but did they have to use BuzzAngle? BuzzAngle's charts have so many problems and mistakes 

[kimberly]

Love the interface and transparency with the numbers. Need weekly peaks tho!

[thegreatdivine]

I don't see Rolling Stone's charts catching on. Billboard's charts will always be the industry standard, but I can see the benefit of them having competition. It'll give them incentive to do more and probably be more transparent.

I just have objections about BuzzAngle supplying data because they have a LONG history of being less than accurate.

Billboard charts (the older, more respected and regarded chart body).

Nielsen Soundscan (the older, more respected and regarded information and sales tracking system).

[fhas]

Dancing With A Stranger (#31), 7 rings (#32), Without Me (#42), Sweet but Psycho (#43), Happier (#55), ME! (#67), SICKO MODE (#68)... it's interesting to see the impact that radio, YouTube and Pandora have on the Hot 100.

[Enigma.]

What a goddamn mess. Do EITHER a weekly OR a daily chart, not messing up with both.

There's no reason to publish the daily chart if the weekly chart is official one.

[thegreatdivine]

Jul 3, 2019 3:11:11 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

What a goddamn mess. Do EITHER a weekly OR a daily chart, not messing up with both.

There's no reason to publish the daily chart if the weekly chart is official one.

I think it's pretty obvious that we'll all be sticking to Billboard's charts, lol. Why should I care about a daily song chart? That's too much stress. There are also a ton of metrics that they don't calculate on their song chart, lol.

[shayonce]

10. Ticket/Album Bundles: Albums sold in conjunction with the purchase of a concert ticket or mobile app count toward chart totals, as long as the inclusion of the album is marketed to the consumer at the time of purchase. If the album is shipped to the consumer, the sale will register when that order is fulfilled. Similarly, if the album is fulfilled as a digital download, the sale is registered upon fulfillment. In the event that a CD or download card is distributed at the venue, those sales will be recorded, so long as the inclusion of the album was messaged as part of the ticket transaction. Minimum price rules still apply for the price paid for the album within the ticket bundle.

11. Direct To Fan Packages: Albums included in Direct To Fan packages, be they fan experiences or merchandise, count toward chart totals when the album’s inclusion is specifically marketed. Such transactions will be recorded in the same timeframes outlined in Ticket/Album Bundles.

How do the Rolling Stone Charts deal with music bundling?
Album or song bundling, also known as “direct-to-consumer” (D2C) sales, refers to the practice of offering music in a merchandise package sale. Whether to limit the eligibility of these bundles on music charts is currently a topic of industry debate; in accordance with music industry standards, the Rolling Stone Charts currently cap the number of eligible bundled items at specific quotas for each chart, and we will continue to evolve with industry discussion.

interesting.

[shayonce]

Each Album Unit total is calculated as follows: (Digital Standard Album Sales*1.0) + (Digital Deluxe Album Sales*1.3) + (CD Standard Album Sales*1.0) + (CD Deluxe Album Sales*1.3) + (Vinyl Standard Album Sales*2.0) + (Vinyl Deluxe Album Sales*2.5) + (Cassette Album Sales*1.0) + (Digital Song Sales/10) + (On-Demand Audio Subscription Streams/1,200) + (On-Demand Audio Ad-Supported Streams)/3,600).

Each Song Unit total is calculated as follows: (Digital Song Sales) + (On-Demand Audio Subscription Streams/120) + (On-Demand Audio Ad-Supported Streams/360).

....

[rockgolf]

Having to revise the page 15 entries at a time is just too painful. Especially on the Top 500 Artists. That's over 30 times I have to load the page. Just gimme a simple 500 line table without all the graphics and mega-whitespace.

[rosemoor]

Jul 2, 2019 17:45:20 GMT -5 @pete said:

Streaming must be weighted way more than radio since Talk and Sucker are not even top 10...

I love it, since I haven't listened to radio for ages and I think that streaming definitely reflect more listeners' true preference instead of corporations' power.

BTW, I subscribe to Apple Music, if I download the song to my iphone, when I stream it, does it still count as streaming or just count as one song sold?

[dawhite76]

Their album streaming data seems off:

* No. 40 - Eagles self-titled album. Two of its three top tracks per Rolling Stone, "Hotel California" and "Life In The Fast Lane," are not even on the album.
* No. 90 - Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The second most popular track, "Your Song," is not on the album.
* No. 128 - Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album. "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way" are on "Rumours."

[Enigma.]

If I was taking care of charts with mistakes like that, I wouldn't dare to tell anyone I was in charge.

Chart nerds simply do not approve this.

[jodakyellow]

Jul 3, 2019 14:41:56 GMT -5 dawhite76 said:

Their album streaming data seems off:

* No. 40 - Eagles self-titled album. Two of its three top tracks per Rolling Stone, "Hotel California" and "Life In The Fast Lane," are not even on the album.
* No. 90 - Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The second most popular track, "Your Song," is not on the album.
* No. 128 - Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album. "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way" are on "Rumours."

All three of those or so embarrassing on Rolling Stone's part.

Call me when they've worked out the kinks.

[rockgolf]

Jul 3, 2019 14:41:56 GMT -5 dawhite76 said:

Their album streaming data seems off:

* No. 40 - Eagles self-titled album. Two of its three top tracks per Rolling Stone, "Hotel California" and "Life In The Fast Lane," are not even on the album.
* No. 90 - Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The second most popular track, "Your Song," is not on the album.
* No. 128 - Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album. "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way" are on "Rumours."

Most likely, they have the wrong albums listed. More likely, the right albums are The Very Best of The Eagles (which does contain those 3 tracks), Elton John's Diamonds, and Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits.

Definitely problematic, tho.

Same applies to Beatles White album which list the (not on a common album at all to my knowledge) Eleanor Rigby, A Hard Day's Night and Across The Universe.

[ddlz]

Completely useless. We'll never get rid of Billboard if this is the best their competitors can come up with.

[king_billboard_100]

But its similar to billboard same artist other peaks so whats the point???