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Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

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Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#42
post #10

This article says that the Top 40 has dropped from 35mm to 30mm plays on a Wednesday. Then it says: "The decline is likely partially the result of an overall decrease in streaming after Covid-19 hit the US, due to the absence of people listening to music on commutes and in stores. But it’s not just that. The biggest hits are declining, while the streaming of smaller hits remains about the same." Seems like it could b…

That's an interesting take, but I don't think the explanation could be so simple as "just that". It looks like the graph in the article showing the share of streams toward top songs has been trending downward long before COVID.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#43
I think it's interesting that there's some periodicity in the graph showing the "Share of US Spotify top 200 streams going to top 40 songs" where the share spikes during each summer. I have no substantive conclusions about this, just thought it was worth pointing out.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#44
I guess it’s reasonable to worry that Spotify is creating a sort of algorithmic filter bubble where it just delivers you more of what you want…but man, the Discovery Weekly feature just works. I have, weekly, discovered a lot of artists I would never have heard of.

Am I finding as wide of a range of music as I would have when I worked at a college radio station? Probably not. Have I discovered more and better music than whatever was on the radio in Peoria growing up? You betcha.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#45
"killing" might be an extreme way of putting it, but it's definitely showing that the older models to determine music popularity are outdated (billboard, top 40 radio)

see also Post Malone Shatters 54 Year Old Beatles Record: https://kiss108.iheart.com/content/2018-05-09-post-malone-sh...

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new Pee Wee movie. Death Note was a remake. They made a movie as a sequel to Breaking Bad. They also pick up many series that were canceled elsewhere, like Arrested Development. The Sandler movies are technically original, though at this point his stuff is as much a franchise as Madea. But, yeah, they do pick up a lot of original and niche stuff too. They're the only reason the romantic comedy is still a thing, f…

Netflix did a pretty bad job with Death Note. Willam Dafoe was a good cast, but the same cannot be said of the rest.

It's almost like there's some force of nature making animated-to-live adaptations terrible. There are a few exceptions, though.

I think Netflix did kind of OK on Erased (僕だけがいない街). The first movie that was made from that great source material was excruciatingly bad.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#47
post #10

This article says that the Top 40 has dropped from 35mm to 30mm plays on a Wednesday. Then it says: "The decline is likely partially the result of an overall decrease in streaming after Covid-19 hit the US, due to the absence of people listening to music on commutes and in stores. But it’s not just that. The biggest hits are declining, while the streaming of smaller hits remains about the same." Seems like it could b…

Yeah I agree. I anticipate some amount of people still discover music on the radio (even pop mega hits you have to hear the first time somewhere), then go seek it out on spotify.

I haven't much been in a car, thus haven't heard the radio, in 7 months. I have no idea what's on the top 40 right now.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#48
post #5

Personally, I used to be able to listen to a large portion of the top 50 on Spotify without skipping too many. As of late last year, though, I've found that the top 10 are almost exclusively songs made popular on TikTok. I can't stand to listen to these songs, not because I necessarily dislike the songs (or TikTok for that matter), but because there are 15-30s sections of the song that I have heard dozens of times, p…

Back when I was in school, I really hated Billboard Top 10 for the same reason. Once I've overheard them so many times, often unpleasantly, the actual song became unlistenable, not because I dislike them.

With pop music you hear exactly the same track over and over with no variation and it gets predictable and monotonous. With classical, jazz, or live music there are many performances, so any two recordings will not sound identical. This is one reason I can't stand pop music after a few listens.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#49
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when I was in school, I really hated Billboard Top 10 for the same reason. Once I've overheard them so many times, often unpleasantly, the actual song became unlistenable, not because I dislike them.

With pop music you hear exactly the same track over and over with no variation and it gets predictable and monotonous. With classical, jazz, or live music there are many performances, so any two recordings will not sound identical. This is one reason I can't stand pop music after a few listens.

This is also why people love pop music. It is predictable, safe and unchallenging.

Re: Is Spotify Killing the Top 40?

#50
Spotify has definitely changed how I listen to music over the years. I have my core segments, but I'd say that 33% of my time on Spotify is just stuff that I bump into for random of reasons: a music beef between artists I don't listen to, stories from friends with different tastes in music, a news article about a band in the 50s, etc.

I find myself listening to the music to give context to the stories I bump into. And then I just sort of get lost in it for a bit like you would reading random stuff on Wikipedia. Wrecks havoc on my music suggestions though.

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