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[tommosupport]

We get some asks from time to time about where to get data from. Of course, we want to preface this by saying that you need proper context in order to be able to use the data fully and build on it. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of platforms available for you to use - we’ve added caveats where necessary.

1.       Kworb (http://kworb.net) 

a.   Provides realtime iTunes chart updates for both singles and albums, as well as iTunes popularity updates for both singles and albums. You can sort by country or get worldwide data, and the platform also offers some data on YouTube and other metrics, such as Artist Popularity.

b.   Drawbacks: Keep in mind that even though it’s realtime, there is a lag in Kworb’s data nonetheless. Popularity is updated only every four hours or so. iTunes charts will update more regularly, but will lag behind what people may already be able to see in their own iTunes stores.

2.       DigitalSalesData (http://digitalsalesdata.com) 

a.   This website used to be able to provide you with the sales numbers for singles on iTunes charts.

b.   Drawbacks: It no longer gives accurate data, because this is no longer included in the iTunes Store API. Nonetheless, it does give you an indication of the market as a whole in a country – are the margins to get into the Top 10 close or not, and what’s the sales velocity like? Keep in mind that these numbers therefore should be interpreted, and not just blankly copied or taken as reflective of the actual sales numbers.

3.   Chartmetric (http://chartmetric.com) 

a.   Probably one of the most elaborate websites that lets you collect many KPIs from various platforms – TikTok, Shazam, Spotify, AppleMusic, YouTube, etc. They have over 25 different data sources.  It also shows you things like fan conversion rate (the ratio of monthly listeners vs artist followers on Spotify, for example), and lets you sort playlists on whether they are editorial, personalized or both. They provide data on trends and give you updates in percentages as well when it comes to relative change in subscribers, views, etc. There’s a separate section on social insights, too. They also developed their own cross-platform index which is a useful tool to see if an artist is able to really create a robust fan foundation across all various social platforms. Chartmetric regularly publishes interesting pieces on their latest finds and data analysis. Reading them will help you understand the data they offer, and will let you know how to interpret it all.

b.   Drawbacks: You can only follow up to 5 tracks/items and get email notifications for the free version. And most importantly, you need to actually put in some work to understand how you can interpret their data points. Otherwise it can be overwhelming, or you may just copy-paste the numbers without contextualizing them, which isn’t going to help anyone. It’s great for trends, but you need to be able to identify those and explain them, supported by the numbers. You also don’t have as much insight into radio on the free platform.

4.   Songstats

a.   Similar to Chartmetric, SongStats offers data on an artist and their discography, using various inputs (Spotify, Beatport, AppleMusic, Deezer, Shazam, SoundCloud, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, TraxSource, 1001 Tracklists, YouTube, iTunes). It can also provide you with an overview of the top current playlists where any music by Louis is playlisted. You can customise what data inputs you want to see.

b.   Drawbacks: The data they provide for the free version is very limited, and while they do provide some analytics for free – those are all cumulative data. For example, they’ll say Defenceless is on 114 playlists and has a reach of 2,04M. This is in total, across time. It is not always current, so again you have to be very careful with reading the data they give you in analytics, and how you need to interpret it. It also depends per input source. iTunes & AppleMusic do offer a distinction between current or total/cumulative.

5.   Soundcharts (http://soundcharts.com) 

a.   Similar to Chartmetric and Songstats (more like Songstats in how it’s formatted, but more like Chartmetric in the data it lets you see). Very useful specifically if you want to see a breakdown of radio play per country.

b.   Drawbacks: This is only free for two weeks, then plans start at 41$ a month. Moreover, again, be careful in how you interpret data. They don’t properly account for syndicated shows, and they use a questionable metric to track audiences. It also makes no distinction between internet/terrestrial radio. (There’s a difference, because internet radio is traditionally not counted for charting, whereas airplay on ‘terrestrial’ radio does count if radio is tracked for charting purposes like in the US). When you look at e.g. radio play, make sure to use the function to filter out plays shorter than 30 seconds!

6.   SpotifyCharts (http://spotifycharts.com) 

a.   The official site of Spotify that updates on Viral and Top 200 playlists. You may find that there’s a difference between the numbers shown here and on an artist’s own profile. It’s because these numbers have been audited extra carefully to filter out any sort of artificial inflation or fraudulent streaming activities. These update daily around 3PM EST, usually a bit earlier than the song specific numbers.

b.   Drawbacks: While they do update daily, the time thereof is incredibly irregular.

7.   Chartmasters (http://chartmasters.org) 

a.   A site that allows you to quickly see an artist’s overall Spotify streams in a table. You can sort based on popular songs or on discography.

b.   Drawback: You need an account and only get to use it 3 times a day. Make sure you use them wisely.

8.   Billboard (http://billboard.com) 

a.   Billboard offers a variety of charts – aside from the most well known Hot 100 and Album 200 (and the Social 50 in the past). It also used to offer artist-specific overviews of peak chart positions.

b.   Drawbacks: We said ‘used to’, because they technically still offer it – you just need to have a paid subscription to be able to access that data, as well as the other charts they have. Think of split-out charts on digital download sales or streaming, as well as radio airplay or genre-specific charts.

9.   NextBigSound (http://nextbigsound.com) 

a.   NBS is monitored and used by Nielsen to compile the Social 50 for Billboard. It provides you a good overview of social media clout and activity. It also gives margins as to whether or not an artist’s activity and engagement are on par with what you’d expect of an artist what x amount of followers, for example. Also unique: It gives you insights in Pandora. Pandora is part of SiriusXM, as well as its own streaming service and is therefore influential in US radio play as well.

b.   Drawbacks: It only tracks a limited amount of data sources (Facebook, Pandora, Twitter, Wikipedia), and used to provide more insights as to e.g. gender & country demographics. It no longer will do that, unless you have access to an artist’s AMP on Pandora.

10.   Radio Airplay Chart UK (http://ukairplaychart.com/)

a.   Gives you an overview of Top 40 songs being played on UK radio. You can also choose whether you want a rolling overview or see last chart week.

b.   Drawbacks: It doesn’t tell you how often a song needs to be played and if this is based on audience or amount of plays (or when songs were most often played)

11.   AllAccess (http://allaccess.com) 

a.   This is the database that is most often used by radio in the US to find new songs to play and to track radioplay across the country. It’s also a great platform to keep updated with the latest changes in terms of program directors or hosts at particular radio stations (which is useful when requesting). It will show you when a song was played and how often, and the estimated audience that was reached. All these things factor in airplay charting, so it’s nice to have a breakdown of it. It’ll also tell you which radio stations are giving support.

b.   Drawbacks: You need to have an existing account with them and you need to know how to navigate their platform, which can be quite tricky. Moreover, they use the callsigns of radio stations, which can further complicate finding the data you need, because you’re most likely not going to be familiar with those.

12.   SpotonTrack (http://spotontrack.com) 

a.   Sends you daily reports of Spotify and AppleMusic tracking data for a song. Useful for playlist updates!

b.   Drawbacks: Only lets you track one song for two weeks in the free trial, after that you’ll have to pay for the service. You could technically also monitor radioplay, but this is not available for free trial users.

13.   RadioMonitor (http://radiomonitor.com) 

a.   This site shows you radio charts around the world, but can also provide aggregate data for particular regions.

b.   Drawbacks: Only useful once a song has started charting in airplay Top 10s.

14.   WARM Music (https://warmmusic.net/) 

a.   Allows you to track radio play starting from 3E per month

b.    Drawbacks: Not sure how accurate their data is, though they monitor over 28000 stations around the world. When using the free trial from time to time, it always seemed somewhat limited and not in step with what other sites would say (i.e., currently it says Defenceless was only played 49 times in total over the past two weeks. We know this is not correct.). 

[tommosupport]

Update!  * It seems that with the recent acquisition and further integration of Shazam into Apple, it’s become more difficult to Shazam more often than once a day on iPhones/iOS. You can still try to clear your history & log out, but try to at least Shazam once every 24 hours. This is not an issue for Android users!

* The Shazam numbers are updated incredibly irregularly. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see the amount of Shazams jump up after you’ve Shazamed once of Louis’ tracks. 

How To: Shazam

We’ve seen some confusion on how to maximize Shazams and what the purpose behind Shazam actually is - please read below for all the info you need!

What is Shazam? 

Shazam is an app that you can download on both your computer, as well as on mobile devices. It tries to identify the song you’re listening to, so you can ‘discover’ new music, artists, lyrics, and videos relating to the song. 

You can download Shazam here for iOS, and here for Android. 

Why is it important? 

Shazam data is also sent to radio stations and is nowadays a useful metric that helps radio stations determine a song’s popularity, hence influencing the airplay. Therefore, it’s important to Shazam Louis’ songs as often as you can - it shows there is interest in the song. This is especially important for US Louies because airplay actually forms part of the Hot 100 chart. 

How can you help? 

You can help by Shazaming the song whenever you hear it play somewhere in public - ie ‘organically’. 

But you can also help by deliberately Shazaming the song as many times as possible. Here are the steps to folow: 

Play Louis’ track on your device - it can be the same one as where you have Shazam installed, but you can also use a different one. If you can’t play the song out loud - that’s okay! Just plug in headphones, and make sure that the earpiece is still next to the mic of your device. 

Open the Shazam App and tap the button, wait for it to identify the song. 

Congrats - you’ve Shazamed the song once! Keep in mind that only one Shazam per hour counts. 

Pro Tip: If you want to Shazam multiple times in a row - all you have to do is clear the data from your app & remain logged out in Shazam!

[tommosupport]

How To: Stationhead

Given the fact that we expect the app to be used more often in the future, here is some information on Stationhead. We originally provided the information for this instruction that is part of Project Defenceless, and can thus be found in various translations via the associated fanpack here too. 

What is it? 

Stationhead is an app that is available for download on iOS and Android. You can also tune in to broadcasts via your desktop browser when following the link shared by the station host. Stationhead’s integration with Apple Music and Spotify Premium means that whenever a host plays a song on their show, it drives an Apple Music or Spotify stream for every listener. A song played for 100k listeners thus earns 100k unique streams for that artist.  

What do you need? 

- The Stationhead App 

- Spotify/AppleMusic subscription

- A Stationhead account 

NOTE: If you have Spotify Free, you can still listen to the broadcast via web browser. Ask for the host to share a weblink of the broadcast and log in. We have noted that in some cases, however, this will only allow 30 second snippets of songs to play. You can of course use the Spotify app or web client concurrently to play the full song, and stay tuned into Stationhead only for the live commentary.

How can you tune ine? 

1. Download the app 

2. Create an account on Stationhead

3. Link your Apple Music or Spotify Premium to your Stationhead account

4. Go to the station host/broadcast

5. Listen along via the app or via browser (if you have Spotify Free!)

[tommosupport]

In case you are interested in the types of record deals that are out there and how - in a streaming services climate - they affect the level of net profit you end up with as an artist, you may want to check out this website. 

"It is designed to show how the math works when an artist signs—the path to profitability for creator and company alike, based solely on streams.”

[tommosupport]

hey! on focus playlists: do both jho and bty qualify as features? and should song 7 be any feature or one that's not by louis? thank you sm in advance

Hi!  JHO and BTY both qualify as features, though Louis is listed as ‘second’ artist only for JHO. 

Song 7 could be any feature - but obviously it’s great if one of Louis’ own features could get another spin there ;) You could technically also see a song by 1D as a feature. It will give your list more variety in terms of artists, but part of the royalties will still go to him (choose a song he wrote on as well, double the pay for Louis) 

[tommosupport]

How To: Create a Focus Playlist

When playing the album on repeat, you don’t necessarily need to create a playlist - you can just use the album or “Complete Playlist” on Louis’ own profile. 

If you however want to focus on one particular song, you’ll have to create your own playlist. To give you an idea of how to optimize your streams (ie make sure they’re all counted and not flagged as bot behaviour), here’s an outline. For general tips, please see our other post on Spotify. 

<Focus Song> 

Song 1 (different artist)

Song 2 (same artist)

Song 3 (same artist feature)

<Focus Song> 

Song 4 (different artist)

Song 5 (different artist)

<Focus Song> 

Song 6 (same artist)

Song 7 (feature)

Song 8 (different artist)

<Focus Song>

Song 9 (same artist)

Song 10 (same artist)

Song 11 (different artist)

<Focus Song> 

Song 12 (same artist)

<Focus Song> 

Song 1

Song 4

Song 3

<Focus Song> 

[tommosupport]

How To: Stream on Spotify

There’s two main parts to being as effective as possible in your streaming - creating a playlist that will serve as your base, and then how you will stream from that playlist. 

It’s important to steadily increase streams and also the amount of users who stream songs from Louis, as it shows not only his popularity, but it’s also a great metric to get his song in front of a new audience. The more popular a song is in terms of daily streams, the more likely Spotify is to then recommend it to others. Similarly, the more often a song is combined in a playlist with particular other artists/songs/genres, the more likely the algorithm is to then recommend a song by Louis to someone who Spotify knows likes those other artists/songs/genres.  CREATING A PLAYLIST

It's best to create your own playlist, or to use the artist's own playlist/album collection when wanting to boost streams. When making your own, remember that it should:  

feature at least 12 different songs

never put the same song twice in a row

be anywhere between 40 minutes - 3 hours long

have at least 3 or 4 different artists featured in the playlist. (Unless you are using an artist's own playlist/album collection.)

TIP: Think of what genre/artists you'd like Louis to be associated with, and include them in your own playlist! Give your playlist a fun, 'real' name & cover art.  

STREAMING A PLAYLIST

Preferably let your playlist run once, instead of "repeat all". Use the shuffle setting if you'd like, but Spotify could end up randomly favouring other songs than the ones you actually want to stream. (Not an issue if you use the artist's playlist/album collection.)

Check that you are NOT making use of ‘local files’, as these streams will not count. 

Do NOT use a VPN, as these streams will be voided by Spotify.

Always keep the volume on, you can plug in earphones - but do NOT mute.

TIP: Skip two/three songs every hour - emulate a 'real/random' listening experience! You can also skip after 30 seconds a few times per session to speed up your streaming numbers, which is especially useful when you have just one focus song.  PREMIUM USERS: if you stream songs offline (ie you’ve used the button for ‘download’), your streams will be added to the overall tally once you go online again. You must do this within 30 days of your initial offline streams! 

[tommosupport]

FYI this is the rough division of where your concert ticket money is going: 

* 10% booking fee, processing fee going to ticketing company 

* 5-35% taxes (dependent on country) 

* 1-3% public performance royalties paid to songwriters (who pay a fee to PROs to collec these royalties for them), dependent on venue country & size

* 15-35% fixed venue fees such as: venue hire, stage hands, staff, electricians, power, spotlight hire, scaffolding, barriers, catering, insurance, medical staff, transport, forklifts etc  

This leaves about 50 to 70% of the ticket money up for grabs. From this, the split between promoter and act is usually around 15/85, which is: 

* 7,5%-10,5% to promoter 

* 42,5%-59,5% to act (with exception that usually, acts are given a set fee, which means promoters need to shoulder any potential losses if shows do not sell out. If that’s the case, promoters will in turn usually receive a higher percentage from all revenue after they hit breakeven)

Out of that percentage, the act has to pay their own crew & manager. Think of roadies, sound engineers, tour manager, tour musicians, backing singers, catering, lighting crew, transport trucks - all who need to be paid on both performance & non-performing days as they’re still travelling and on tour. A manager usually takes about 15-20% from the act’s tour income. Taken together with all additional costs as listed above who are all on payroll of the artist, the act probably ends up with about 20% of the actual gross revenue at most. 

Which, usually, is immediately taken as recoupment by the label for recording costs, or used to invest in new recording sessions. 

(And this doesn’t take into account other costs like marketing costs or per diems etc) 

Anyways - if you want to have a look, you could e.g. read this 

[tommosupport]

what is global digital artist charts and what is its impact

Hi anon,

Has no impact, it’s just a compiled metric that shows how well an artist is currently doing on various digital single charts. 

This means that it gives you an immediate look into an artist’s potential across various platforms and how competitive they are. It looks at iTunes charting (digital sales), Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music as streaming platforms. The higher an artist charts on those platforms separately, the higher their cumulative score on the digital artist ranking. 

You can also see very clearly on there that e.g. Louis is not competitive on streaming platforms currently because the margins are much bigger there, the absolute numbers needed to chart are currently well out of our range, unfortunately. 

[tommosupport]

[...]

Launching today, the Billboard Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide songs while Billboard Global Excl. U.S. focuses on all territories outside the United States. Both collate sales and streaming data from more than 200 territories, with rankings based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading digital platforms, and downloads from key online music retailers.

[...]

Additional note: Billboard writes about MRC Data - this is the new name of Nielsen, so they have not switched companies for their data input. 

[tommosupport]

Google Play Music is Disappearing

This is a general note for all of you who’ve used Google Play Music in the past to buy additional digital copies of songs. Google Play Music will disappear completely between October and the end of this year. 

It will be replaced with YouTube Music, but it is unclear as of yet if you will continue to have the ability to purchase songs as individual downloads, or if this will be a streaming only service. 

Because access will be removed permanently, please do make sure that you’ve either downloaded YouTube Music and can transfer your downloads, playlists etc, or save the song files somewhere else so you don’t lose your access to them. 

[tommosupport]

New Merch Bundling Rules Billboard

Here is an overview of the bundling rules as of January 2020: 

1. All items in bundle must be available for purchase at the same time as individual items on the same website.

2. Merchandise items sold individually have to be priced lower than the bundle (merch + album). The bundle must be priced at least $3.49 more than merch item alone.

3. Merchandise must be sold in the artist’s official direct-to-consumer web store - not via third-party websites. 

4. Merchandise must be clearly artist- or album-branded. 

5. Sales count when digital album is redeemed, or when physical copy ships. 

Additionally, here are the additional, superseding rules that will go into effect October 9th 2020*: 

1. Albums bundled with merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as optional add-on to the purchase - value has to be $3.49 or more, see above. Any baked-in, single-price combo deals are not valid. 

2. Physical albums/singles bundled with digital downloads will not be counted as additional digital sales. Only the physical item will be counted once shipped. 

* NOTE: Single bundling format as described under 2 will take effect for the Hot 100 as of August 7th. 

[tommosupport]

New Merch Bundling Rules Billboard

Here is an overview of the bundling rules as of January 2020: 

1. All items in bundle must be available for purchase at the same time as individual items on the same website.

2. Merchandise items sold individually have to be priced lower than the bundle (merch + album). The bundle must be priced at least $3.49 more than merch item alone.

3. Merchandise must be sold in the artist’s official direct-to-consumer web store - not via third-party websites. 

4. Merchandise must be clearly artist- or album-branded. 

5. Sales count when digital album is redeemed, or when physical copy ships. 

Additionally, here are the additional, superseding rules that will go into effect October 9th 2020*: 

1. Albums bundled with merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as optional add-on to the purchase - value has to be $3.49 or more, see above. Any baked-in, single-price combo deals are not valid. 

2. Physical albums/singles bundled with digital downloads will not be counted as additional digital sales. Only the physical item will be counted once shipped. 

* NOTE: Single bundling format as described under 2 will take effect for the Hot 100 as of August 7th. 

[tommosupport]

Billboard Announces New Chart Rules: No More Merch & Ticket Bundles

7/13/2020 by Chris Eggertsen

It has also changed how sales are counted for not-yet-manufactured physical albums delivered at a later date.

Billboard is changing the rules to its Billboard 200, Hot 100 and other album and song charts. The announcement comes in an effort to rectify how sales are counted with respect to album bundles with merchandise and concert tickets, as well as instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date.  

On the issue of bundling, the latest rule changes supersede a number of others that were previously instituted in January. Those included a requirement that albums bundled with merchandise be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website, as well as a requirement that merchandise sold on its own be priced lower than bundles that included the album. Additionally, merchandise/album bundles could only be sold on an artist’s official direct-to-consumer web store and not via third-party sites.

Now, Billboard – in an acknowledgement that those measures have fallen short of the intended goal of accurately reflecting consumer intent – has decided to eliminate the practice of counting albums bundled with merchandise and concert tickets on its album and song charts altogether.

Under the new rules, which will be implemented at a start date to be announced, all albums bundled with either merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as an add-on to those purchases in order to be counted on the charts. Those included as part of a baked-in, single-price option (along with the merchandise or ticket), with the album cost undisclosed to the consumer, will no longer be counted. It is Billboard’s belief that the resulting charts will more accurately reflect consumer choice.

In addition, Billboard will no longer allow sales of physical albums or singles that are bundled with digital downloads to be reported as digital sales, thereby eliminating the practice of “spontaneous” non-manufactured items being used to influence first-week chart rankings. Only when the physical item – ostensibly what the consumer is buying – is shipped, will it be counted in Billboard’s official tallies.

The practice of selling vinyl, CDs and other physical releases that won’t be manufactured and shipped to consumers for weeks or months – while offering a digital download that can be redeemed instantly – has become widespread as of late, with artists including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and 6ix9ine all recently using the tactic to boost their chart positions. The latest rule changes will render that tactic ineffectual.

Billboard is implementing these changes to address widespread concerns that an accurate measure of consumer intent – which has been the basis of the Billboard charts since their inception – is being undermined by increasingly-common bundling practices. The new guidelines will better ensure that Billboard chart rankings more accurately reflect the conscious purchasing decisions of consumers and level the playing field for all artists.

Though the sales strategy of bundling albums goes back decades, more recently it has been employed by artists and labels to try and boost album sales, which have been continually falling over the last several years but are worth considerably more than streams on the charts. In 2019, overall album sales dropped 18.7%, making it the fourth year in a row where album sales dropped by at least 10%.

Despite the latest rule changes on album bundling, Billboard will continue to work with the industry to reflect merchandise sales within existing charts such as the Artist 100, as well as potential merchandise-specific charts down the line.

[tommosupport]

How To: Clear Twitter Searches

When using Twitter, you’d like for people that search Louis’ name to come across positive content. There are unfortunately moments in time where other people decide to deliberately dilute the normal search results with aggressive, derogatory or negative adjectives. Because we do not want Louis to be associated with those, and we want the focus to be on just him and his music - there are luckily some things you can do to aid in ‘clearing’ those searches. 

There are three main ways to do this: 

1. Writing your own tweets with positive adjectives as keywords. 

This means sending out tweets with Louis’ full name (add his username while you’re at it to help with Billboard Artist charting), with one positive adjective included. E.g. “Louis Tomlinson nice” 

Only the first three words really matter right now for Twitter’s algorithm, so that’s really all you need. If you would like to add more adjectives, they won’t be registered if they’re all in the same tweet. It’s better to tweet them out separately. 

Don’t forget to spread your tweets throughout the day, in order to avoid being seen as spam! 

Additionally, interact with similar tweets from other people to push them up the recommended/top search results when someone looks for “Louis Tomlinson”. 

Try not to use negative adjectives, even when you’re rebuking an argument. Instead of writing “Louis is NOT lazy, write “Louis is incredibly motivated/ambitious” or at most, write “Louis is not l*zy”.

2. Overwriting suggested search terms

If you look up Louis Tomlinson on Twitter, the search bar - just as in Google - will give you recommended/suggested search terms. In order to make sure these are what you’d like to be; namely positive and related to music, you can do the following: 

1. Go to the search bar and type in “Louis Tomlinson <positive/career-related adjective>”

2. Stay on the search results page for at least 30 seconds. 

3. Interact with the tweets that you find reflective of your search, like/comment/RT etc. 

4. Choose your adjectives wisely here. If you see any negative adjectives pop up with e.g. the letter S, choose an alternative positive adjective that also starts with an S to overwrite it! For example,  “Louis Tomlinson Sh*t” would become “Louis Tomlinson Singer” in the suggested search bar. 

3. Clearing Twitter Topics

Interact with positive tweets that pop up in the Louis Tomlinson topic to make sure they stay visible. Additionally, you can report tweets that are negative as either spam/something you’re not interested in/something that is not related to Louis Tomlinson. 

[tommosupport]

This is further confirmation of our previous reporting on sales. Do NOT buy more than 4 copies with the same credit card/payment method - these will not be counted towards the US Billboard Charts.

[tommosupport]

Rolling Stone Chart Methodology

The unofficial competitor of the Billboard 200 chart (which is based on Nielsen data), is the Rolling Stone Chart.

 They publish their methodology for calculating their album chart positions, and is as follows: 

Each Album Unit total is calculated as follows: (Digital Standard Album Sales*1.0) + (Digital Deluxe Album Sales*1.3) + (CD Standard Album Sales*1.0) + (CD Deluxe Album Sales*1.3) + (Vinyl Standard Album Sales*2.0) + (Vinyl Deluxe Album Sales*2.5) + (Cassette Album Sales*1.0) + (Digital Song Sales/10) + (On-Demand Audio Subscription Streams/1,200) + (On-Demand Audio Ad-Supported Streams)/3,600).

Each Song Unit total is calculated as follows: (Digital Song Sales) + (On-Demand Audio Subscription Streams/120) + (On-Demand Audio Ad-Supported Streams/360).

The Trending and Breakthrough charts, which rank the growth of up-and-coming songs and artists, respectively, exclude songs and artists that have already appeared in top positions in the charts.

Further restrictions are applied to album- and song-bundled sales (also known as “D2C” sales) that cap the number of bundles that are eligible for the Albums and Songs charts.