how are streams counted between singles and albums?

[Carlitoz]

Could somebody explain this to me? For example:
- How much of an album has to be streamed to be counted as a full album stream? Does this have to happen during a period of time to count?
- Playing a single song counts then toward the numbers of the song AND of numbers of the album too?
- Got confused when in recent days there was news about a BIG instant certification of Shakira's new album. (?!) Is it because of ALL the singles from the last two years that are now showing in the album?? It almost doesn't sound fair or making sense?

Thank you!

[Carlitoz]

Oh also, should the streams of songs of an album come from the same user to count toward a total album play?

[Deleted]

Mar 25, 2024 11:28:01 GMT -5 Carlitoz said:

Could somebody explain this to me? For example:
- How much of an album has to be streamed to be counted as a full album stream? Does this have to happen during a period of time to count?
- Playing a single song counts then toward the numbers of the song AND of numbers of the album too?
- Got confused when in recent days there was news about a BIG instant certification of Shakira's new album. (?!) Is it because of ALL the singles from the last two years that are now showing in the album?? It almost doesn't sound fair or making sense?

Thank you!


Oh also, should the streams of songs of an album come from the same user to count toward a total album play?

1. So 1,500 streams from any song within the album for at least 30 second will give you an album equivalent. For songs, 150 streams from that specific song for at least 30 seconds will give a single equivalent 
2. Yes but they are weighted differently and no one combines both. A good way to look at it is that the album equivalent let's you measure an era as a whole whereas the single equivalent let's you see how each individual song performed. 
3. It's a cumulative thing. So 1 stream from any song in Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran before or after the release of the album from 1,500 people would give you an album equivalent. 

The thresholds are based on revenue (Similar to what a label would earn from a single and album back in the physical era) 

Likewise, 10 single downloads is equal to one album unit:

Album equivalent unit: 1 album sale = 10 single downloads = 1,500 song streams 

For the record, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran was certified 7x Platinum Latin so that's around 420k album units or 4.2m single units. But nobody would say the era sold 4.62M records. It had some huge hits and that seems on par with what it would have done back in the physical era.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Also, that's only for the US, different countries has slightly different ways of determining how many streams count as album equivalents too. For example in the UK, an album's top 2 tracks are downweighted so you don't have a situation like Miley's Endless Summer Vacation where you have an absolutely massive first single and then nobody cares about the album itself. They take the top 12 streamed tracks on an album, downweight the top 2 tracks to be in line with #3, and then divide by 1000 to determine album equivalents.

[Deleted]

Mar 29, 2024 7:11:26 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Also, that's only for the US, different countries has slightly different ways of determining how many streams count as album equivalents too. For example in the UK, an album's top 2 tracks are downweighted so you don't have a situation like Miley's Endless Summer Vacation where you have an absolutely massive first single and then nobody cares about the album itself. They take the top 12 streamed tracks on an album, downweight the top 2 tracks to be in line with #3, and then divide by 1000 to determine album equivalents.

But that's only for the charts, right? Not for certifications 

[Eloqueen™]

Mar 29, 2024 7:11:26 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Also, that's only for the US, different countries has slightly different ways of determining how many streams count as album equivalents too. For example in the UK, an album's top 2 tracks are downweighted so you don't have a situation like Miley's Endless Summer Vacation where you have an absolutely massive first single and then nobody cares about the album itself. They take the top 12 streamed tracks on an album, downweight the top 2 tracks to be in line with #3, and then divide by 1000 to determine album equivalents.

I love this methodology! It seems more genuine. Something odd about an album supposedly being hugely successful just because it had 1 or 2 huge hit singles that carried its certs to quadruple platinum status. lol

[jenglisbe]

Mar 31, 2024 9:09:01 GMT -5 Eloqueen™ said:

Mar 29, 2024 7:11:26 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Also, that's only for the US, different countries has slightly different ways of determining how many streams count as album equivalents too. For example in the UK, an album's top 2 tracks are downweighted so you don't have a situation like Miley's Endless Summer Vacation where you have an absolutely massive first single and then nobody cares about the album itself. They take the top 12 streamed tracks on an album, downweight the top 2 tracks to be in line with #3, and then divide by 1000 to determine album equivalents.

I love this methodology! It seems more genuine. Something odd about an album supposedly being hugely successful just because it had 1 or 2 huge hit singles that carried its certs to quadruple platinum status. lol

Sure, but it happened all of the time with physical album sales so it's not any different. There were a lot of albums that sold 3-4 million copies off the strength of just 1 hit (see Joan Osborne's 3x platinum Relish, which is a stellar album but only sold because of "One Of Us"). Hell, Vanilla Ice's first album is 7x platinum, basically just off "Ice Ice Baby."

[Eloqueen™]

Mar 31, 2024 9:36:59 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Mar 31, 2024 9:09:01 GMT -5 Eloqueen™ said:

I love this methodology! It seems more genuine. Something odd about an album supposedly being hugely successful just because it had 1 or 2 huge hit singles that carried its certs to quadruple platinum status. lol

Sure, but it happened all of the time with physical album sales so it's not any different. There were a lot of albums that sold 3-4 million copies off the strength of just 1 hit (see Joan Osborne's 3x platinum Relish, which is a stellar album but only sold because of "One Of Us"). Hell, Vanilla Ice's first album is 7x platinum, basically just off "Ice Ice Baby."

See the distinction there? An album was *sold*. A person buying an entire album, regardless of if it's for one single or not, is not the same as a person buying or streaming a single and then the album getting boosted as a result in certifications. That's where we are going to agree to completely disagree. The equivalent would be someone buying a physical single in the 90s and its parent album getting the sale.

I know you're all about certifications over raw data and all that, but they are wildly inaccurate a lot of times if we care about actual sales, especially when record companies can and do buy their artist's certs and pad their artist's catalog ridiculously to make things appear bigger than they actually are/were. Nothing worse than seeing an album that literally sold 3.15 million copies being certified 5 or 6x Platinum. I still personally feel an album should have to sell within 100k or less copies of the certification requested to qualify for the certification in question. And I'm not going to go back and forth about this as I know we disagree completely in this matter so you have your opinion and I'll have mine. :)