How streaming hijacked the charts
AS A slew of songs from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s dominate the top 50, it’s time we asked if streaming services are turning the ARIA charts into a disjointed mess.
The ARIA top 50 for the week ending December 31 tells an unusual story. The playlist is stacked with 14 Christmas songs – and none of them are new releases.
The most recent song is Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me, which came out in 2014. The next most recent is the Justin Bieber Christmas hit Mistletoe, which came out in 2011.
From there, the charts get a lot more historical. So why are all these retro songs suddenly stacking out the top 50 decades after their release?
In 2014, the ARIA charts began including streamed plays along with paid-for downloads and hard copy purchases to make up their weekly singles and album charts. Streamed plays are plays from services like Spotify and Apple Music, where a user plays a song but no hard copy purchase is made.
But music sales have not gone anywhere, with trends suggesting Australian consumers have simply changed their consumption behaviours.
In Australian charts, the ratio is 175 streams counts as one sale. So if you buy Mariah Carey’s song on iTunes, it counts a fair bit more than if you play it once on Spotify.
Fewer and fewer Australians seem to be making those purchases, but are happily switching over to streaming services and enjoying them in droves.