Billboard Hot 100: 12/04/2021

[ontopofthis]

Nov 22, 2021 13:00:44 GMT -5 Limited Edition said:

This feels wrong:

Yes, god forbid a song that normal, well-adjusted people actually stream receives its rightful certifications. Everything must be based upon Stan Twitter delusion 

[kimberly]

Nov 22, 2021 13:27:44 GMT -5 Choco said:

Nov 22, 2021 13:00:44 GMT -5 Limited Edition said:

This feels wrong:

"Life Is Good" certified DIAMOND by the RIAA for moving 10,000,000 units

It was a big hit, no shade to it, but also proof that it's much easier to hit that mark nowadays.

the YouTube autoplay streams surely helped. it's one of very few (if not the only) American hit songs in the past couple years to have more than a full billion more streams on the music video than its play count on Spotify. 🤔

from a chart watcher perspective, this certification isn't too much of a surprise though, considering this is Drake's longest-running Hot 100 hit and all. shady or not, it had a very successful run on the charts in 2020.

[ontopofthis]

Nov 22, 2021 13:27:44 GMT -5 Choco said:

Nov 22, 2021 13:00:44 GMT -5 Limited Edition said:

This feels wrong:

It was a big hit, no shade to it, but also proof that it's much easier to hit that mark nowadays.

It is easier than in the 90s etcetera, but it is still extremely rare. The majority of the songs that are reaching it nowadays are catalogue songs. Life Is Good is the only 2020 song to reach the certification. I do not even believe that The Box and Blinding Lights are there yet 

[phieaglesfan712]

Nov 22, 2021 13:00:44 GMT -5 Limited Edition said:

This feels wrong:

All I can say is that I’m looking forward to Uptown Funk becoming the first double diamond single.

[purp child]

Nov 22, 2021 13:00:44 GMT -5 Limited Edition said:

This feels wrong:

It's the trade off for streaming not letting albums get to 1m debuts anymore

[Choco]

I love the Hot 100 threads.

Hot 100 threads for me nowadays:

[Enigma.]

Wasn't LIG's points like 60% Youtube... there was something shady going on with it. It does have great Spotify streams too of course.

[purp child]

Nov 22, 2021 13:58:19 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

Wasn't LIG's points like 60% Youtube... there was something shady going on with it. It does have great Spotify streams too of course.

1.9B YouTube views wasn't the deciding factor in going diamond surely

[kimberly]

Nov 22, 2021 14:03:25 GMT -5 purp child said:

Nov 22, 2021 13:58:19 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

Wasn't LIG's points like 60% Youtube... there was something shady going on with it. It does have great Spotify streams too of course.

1.9B YouTube views wasn't the deciding factor in going diamond surely

I mean, the first month it was out about 50% of its YouTube activity came from the US. I believe the proportion of US views increased over time but let's pretend only 50% of all 1.9B views are from the US. that's 950 million views. per the RIAA, 150 views equals 1 unit. so YouTube is responsible for 6.3 million of those 10 million units needed for a DIAMOND plaque.

idk how you define "deciding factor" but the majority of the song's consumption activity is from YouTube.

[Choco]

63% is a deciding factor I'd say lol.

Makes you wonder why most big acts have stopped even making an effort with videos and Youtube. I'm guessing the royalties are crap?

[purp child]

Nov 22, 2021 14:13:15 GMT -5 kimberly said:

Nov 22, 2021 14:03:25 GMT -5 purp child said:

1.9B YouTube views wasn't the deciding factor in going diamond surely

I mean, the first month it was out about 50% of its YouTube activity came from the US. I believe the proportion of US views increased over time but let's pretend only 50% of all 1.9B views are from the US. that's 950 million views. per the RIAA, 150 views equals 1 unit. so YouTube is responsible for 6.3 million of those 10 million units needed for a DIAMOND plaque.

idk how you define "deciding factor" but the majority of the song's consumption activity is from YouTube.

Hmm I didn't know it was 150, that number seems kinda low for the ratio

[kimberly]

Nov 22, 2021 14:23:02 GMT -5 purp child said:

Nov 22, 2021 14:13:15 GMT -5 kimberly said:

I mean, the first month it was out about 50% of its YouTube activity came from the US. I believe the proportion of US views increased over time but let's pretend only 50% of all 1.9B views are from the US. that's 950 million views. per the RIAA, 150 views equals 1 unit. so YouTube is responsible for 6.3 million of those 10 million units needed for a DIAMOND plaque.

idk how you define "deciding factor" but the majority of the song's consumption activity is from YouTube.

Hmm I didn't know it was 150, that number seems kinda low for the ratio

www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DIGITAL-SINGLE-AWARD-RIAA-AND-GRF-CERTIFICATION-AUDIT-REQUIREMENTS.pdf

[Limited Edition]

It was a big hit but The Box and Blinding Lights are both bigger songs. Life Is Good and its YT views is one of the most suspicious things to happen in years. The song was doing over 3M views per day consistently for over a year and then all of a sudden (in a few days) dropped to 500K a day: 

Imagine if Stay dropped to 3M streams tomorrow on Spotify, the next day to 2.5M. And then to 1M in a couple more days... 
BTS massbuying is child's play compared to Life Is Good's YT views. 

[Enigma.]

Yeah that was super weird. But, it's a big hit regardless.

[iHype.]

Life Is Good was just placed highly in the recommendation bar and then YouTube finally changed it. Nothing fishy or conspiracy level lol. That’s YouTube. Just had the equivalent of TTH spam for a really long time.

BTS mass buying is organized fundraisers to chart high that are publicly done with no type of shame, so yeah, that’s still the worst chart manipulation.

[iHype.]

Maybe I am biased, but LIG having bought views or payola never logically even made sense.

Future released 4 other music videos that year:
“Tycoon” - 8 million views to date
“Hard to Choose One” - 16 million views to date
“Ridin Strikers” - 7 million views to date
“Posted with Demons” - 7.9 million views to date

All of them bombed completely. Why would they let them bomb if they could just pay for views like with Life Is Good? And why would you pay for the song that’s already a smash hit to get views instead of songs that actually need views?…

And LIG got huge views even like 10 months after release. Why on Earth would a label be wasting money for a song months after it is no longer even a current hit anymore. What would be the benefit? Who didn’t know the song at that point?

It was just left in the algorithm for recommendations way longer than usual and then it finally got fixed. That’s all.

[Caution]

[85la]

^ Ok, but the question is WHY would they leave it so highly in the recommendations up to 10 months after it's release, and did any other songs come close to it's view count or were similarly recommended for so long? Was there such demand for the song that it did similarly well on other streaming services, radio callouts, and sales (for what little that's worth)? If not, it would be hard to believe there weren't some secret inner-workings going on.

[iHype.]

Nov 22, 2021 15:53:18 GMT -5 85la said:

^ Ok, but the question is WHY would they leave it so highly in the recommendations up to 10 months after it's release, and did any other songs come close to it's view count or were similarly recommended for so long? Was there such demand for the song that it did similarly well on other streaming services, radio callouts, and sales (for what little that's worth)? If not, it would be hard to believe there weren't some secret inner-workings going on.

Life Is Good was an all around smash. It would’ve been a #1 debut and spent multiple weeks atop in 85% of chart weeks, it just dropped during the midst of the biggest song of 2020. The Box was pulling near 100 million streams at its peak.

Which is why the song getting strong recommended/auto play isn’t the most shocking thing to me. If the song peaked at like #62 and was pulling the largest YouTube views of the year then yeah that would be really suspicious.

The song finished at #4 in the 2020 Year End Top AUDIO Streams, so it did just nearly as well there as it did in video streams. It even had much more audio streams than video streams.

I’m really not sure what any logic would be to pay for those views. For an RIAA Diamond certification? Most of the YouTube streams weren’t even in the US, so they would’ve been paying for views which large majority didn’t even count for the certification. Video streams also don’t even count for 90% of official charts outside US so it wasn’t for chart placement. Like there was nothing truly gained. I think it was YouTube being negligent with updating their algorithms properly.

[mms82]

Never blame on malice or conspiracy what can be blamed on stupidity

LIG is just a massive hit and the algorithm was funky adjusting to the last huge US driven YouTube hit, especially as YouTube is dealing with the fact that Americans don’t really listen to music on YouTube anymore

[Limited Edition]

It's possible they were paying YT for good algorithm placement or paying for views to get a Diamond certification. The moment it reached/was very close to Diamond eligibility, the views suddenly dropped:
 

That adds another layer of suspicion. But it's also possible this is just a coincidence

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

I mean, Life Is Good was a big hit, but definitely not :Diamond in less than 2 years: big.

[jenglisbe]

Not sure where to post this but LMAO!!

[jenglisbe]

Does the first official Holiday 100 chart of the season usually happen for this chart week that ends with Thanksgiving, or the one that starts the day after Thanksgiving?

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

^Last year, the first Holiday 100 happened on the chart dated December 5th, 2020, so this year I would expect it to be this week. Also, in the AIWFCIY article about its Hot 100 re-entry, they didn't mention the Holiday 100.

[otaviohmg]

[dremolus - solarpunk]

Only big song I see leaving this week is MONTERO. About 15 Taylor Swift songs are leaving this week so to be replaced about 11 Adele songs

[kierz7]

Nov 22, 2021 19:12:58 GMT -5 Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ said:

I mean, Life Is Good was a big hit, but definitely not :Diamond in less than 2 years: big.

Exactly!

💀

[phieaglesfan712]

Nov 23, 2021 4:04:53 GMT -5 otaviohmg said:

If these predictions are true, then outside of Easy On Me, 30 is a huge bust. I expected at least one Top 10 debut.

[Groovy]

After reading this thread the last few days, I'm fully convinced your guys' expectations for every big artist are way too high.