Let’s talk about charts.
Earlier in November, Billboard announced that it was teaming up with video streaming service YinYueTai (YYT) to launch the ‘authoritative’ Chinese music charts, modeled on the Billboard Hot 100.
It’s a week of chart-breaking releases in the west – Justin Bieber, One Direction (minus Zayn Malik) and Adele’s 25.
They’re all likely to make a dent this new Chinese Hot 100, but let’s be honest – the latest from TFBoys will probably stay solid at No. 1.
This isn’t, of course, the first “chart” to claim a birds-eye view of the Chinese music market. According to a recent government-backed report, there are over 213 music charts circulating online, and that may not include lists generated from real-time data of the most popular songs on platforms like Xiami.
Billboard’s backing lends this particular project an air of authenticity, but digging into its mechanisms reveals a number of problems:
Measurement
Billboard says that the chart be “socially driven” (rather than sales driven), and will rank songs based on “videos with the most engagement on YYT’s website.” This immediately discounts songs that may not have videos, and uses YYT as a proxy for the entire Chinese streaming market, which is flawed. YinYueTai has 50 million registered users, well behind Youku/Tudou or LeTV. “Buzz”, measured by interactions or posts, is different from “listens”, and any chart claiming to be authoritative must be more nuanced in its measurement metrics.
Independence
“Socially driven” charts are prone to vote brigading, and “buzz” often falls in a murky grey area between genuine engagement and sponsored content. The real value of a chart is in its independence, and its ability to tell harsh truths about popular artists. Interlinking the charts to a video streaming service dependent on sponsored content and traffic metrics undermines the chart’s premise.
It’s clear that the focus of this chart is to attract further buzz to the narrow band of pop (both Cantonese and Mandarin) that dominates the airwaves in China. But it’s a missed opportunity – as the Chinese music market diversifies, charts can be valuable, independent sources of discovery as well as un-biased indicators of trends and preferences.
The Billboard/YYT charts are only launching in early 2016, so there’s still time to iron out some of these concerns.
We’re also wondering: who do you think the first “indie” artist will be to top the China Hot 100?