ANPSinger Maan and rapper Snelle
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:07
Almost everyone remembers the hits from his childhood. Entire generations grew up with a shared soundtrack. But with an increasingly fragmented media supply, that soundtrack seems to be becoming more and more individual. The Top 40 still counts down from forty to one every week, but to what extent is it still actually a list that reflects the taste of the Netherlands?
Experts agree that the current Top 40, which still advertises itself as “the one and only hit list”, can no longer be compared to the lists that started in the mid-1960s. Physical singles, the basis of the chart for years, are no longer sold. The current Top 40 is compiled on the basis of airplay (the number of times a song is played on the radio), streaming and trends in social media. The only question is what that says about the popularity.
“Charts are a lot more reliable than in the early years,” says Rob Ester, head of music at radio station Qmusic, which broadcasts the Top 40 every week. “It used to be that a number of record stores would be called to ask what songs were popular, and that was it.”
“There was also a much narrower media offer at the time,” says Niels Aalberts, editor-in-chief at VPROs 3 before 12. Social media did not yet exist and there were considerably fewer radio stations. As a result, broadcasters and radio DJs had a lot of influence. “They turned, so they decided.”
According to Ester, the popularity of singles is measured much better these days: “In the past, we only knew how often a song was sold. We didn’t know whether it was then played gray or immediately disappeared into the closet. Thanks to figures from Spotify and streaming services such as Youtube, we now also know how often that song is actually played. So we now see much better what people like.”
The Top 40 is compiled by the Dutch Top 40 Foundation. On their website they explain that this is done on the basis of:
Airplay: the number of times 100%NL, NPO Radio 2, NPO 3FM, Qmusic, Radio Veronica, Radio 538, Sky Radio and Slam play a song is counted and each hour is multiplied by the listening figures for that hour (supplied by NMOthe National Media Research).
Streaming: the streaming data from Spotify and other streaming platforms are counted.
Social media trends: the buzz around tracks on platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and Shazam
Aalberts doubts the latter: “Due to the great fragmentation, you can hardly speak of a universal hit. What is big on TikTok or often played on YouTube is not necessarily high in the Top 40. An artist like Kendrick Lamar has never had a big hit in the Top 40, but does sell out the Ziggo Dome a few times with a laugh.”
According to him, it is also questionable what Spotify’s listening figures mean: “If a song has been played a million times, is that a million unique listeners, or, for example, 50,000 people who have played the song twenty times each? That makes quite a difference.”
Little Dutch hip-hop
Although not on a regular basis, Qmusic occasionally gets insight into those figures, says Ester. This shows that, for example, Dutch-language hip-hop is listened to relatively more often by a smaller group of people.
Dutch-language hip-hop occupies a separate place in the music landscape. Although the genre frequently appears in the Spotify lists, these songs often do poorly in tests among listeners of the radio stations. That’s why they run less. “And because you also need airplay for a hit rating, these songs sometimes don’t reach the Top 40,” says Ester.
“You see that with a number like Guardian Angel by Marco Schuitmaker, which we released,” says Floris Janssen, manager of record company 8ball. “That is extremely popular and was number 1 in the Dutch Spotify top 50 for a number of times. But it will not reach that position in the top 40. Only because the radio stations don’t play it much.”
‘Angel Guardian’ is also popular on YouTube, the official video clip of the song has already been viewed almost six million times:
Yet today’s charts are precisely due to the combination of streaming figures and airplay more reliable than ever, says Ester. “That is well researched.” Qmusic also regularly conducts research into the taste of listeners. “The results confirm that we are in the right place.”
Despite his reservations about the composition of the list, a number 1 hit is still important, according to Floris Janssen of 8ball. “For us as an industry, streaming is most important, but artists still consider a number 1 hit in a ‘traditional’ chart as the ultimate, a milestone.”
Moreover, it also has its value as a marketing tool: “Artists and the record companies share it on their socials when their number is at 1, which in turn generates attention from, for example, RTL Boulevard in Show news. That way you stay relevant longer.”
“The power of lists is in any case unparalleled”, Aalberts underlines. “People love it. You can see that in the Top 2000”. Janssen: “There is little more fun than discussing these kinds of lists with friends. That will always be the case. Lists are great.”
2023-07-22 05:07:52
#Charts #glory #alive #kicking #measure
