The Death Of The 1 Hit Wonder

For almost a hundred years Billboard has been producing music charts, and artists that have a single hit then drop into oblivion have always played a major part in them. These "1 hit wonders" either come and go (like Keith's "98.6" in 1967) or hit the oldies circuit (Nena with "99 Luft Ballons" in 1983), but every year the charts are littered with them.

Except that there are fewer and fewer 1 hit wonders every year.

An analysis of the last 50 years of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart by Priconomics found that in recent years the number of artists with a hit has declined to an all-time low.

Why? For one thing, songs now stay on the charts longer than at any time in history. Before 1985 it was uncommon for a song to stay on the charts for more than 50 weeks but now it happens regularly, like Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" at 54 weeks and counting. Now a Katy Perry song is likely to stay on the charts nearly 3 times longer than the average Beatles hit from the 60s.

Obviously, the music industry would rather there be more hits as it would be better for business and possibly build more careers. Radio, unfortunately, doesn't see it that way.

Radio needs listener attention to keep its ratings, so it's to their benefit to play songs that everyone knows for as long as it can.

That said, the music business is putting much more energy into promoting established artists than trying break someone new, which perpetuates the cycle.

Regardless, there are fewer new hits to listen to every month, and we're all the worse for it. Just image how boring oldies radio will be 20 years from now.

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What We Can Learn From The Top 20 Streamed Artists Of 2014

One of the ways that streaming music differs from radio is that it's so democratic. You listen to what you want to, so any streaming chart or list better reflects the musical tastes of the listeners.

Soundexchange put together a list of the 20 most streamed artists in 2014 based on royalties it has collected, and it will surprise you. The list shows a variety of new and classic artists, as well as a cross-section of genres. Here it goes:

1. Drake
2. Pearl Jam
3. Rihanna
4. Katy Perry
5. Bruce Springsteen
6. Lil Wayne
7. Luke Bryan
8. Imagine Dragons
9. Eminem
10. Pink Floyd
11. Usher
12. Maroon 5
13. Jason Aldean
14. Bruno Mars
15. One Republic
16. Lorde
17. Chris Brown
18. Tim McGraw
19. Beyonce
20. Taylor Swift

And the top 5 streamed tracks of 2014?

1. "Counting Stars" - One Republic
2. "Dark Horse" - Katy Perry
3. "Demons" - Imagine Dragons
4. "Royals" - Lorde
5. "Happy" - Pharrell Williams

The Billboard charts have always been skewed towards pop music because they were based on radio airplay, which has a very limited playlist that gets even more so every year. That said, streaming is a much better way to see what people actually listen to, and the analytics are far more accurate than the surveys traditionally used to determine radio airplay.

I think you'll see a much better reflection of music consumers tastes in the coming years, which could very well influence the music available, as record labels follow the analytics.

Billboard Twitter Launch Realtime Charts

Billboard Twitter Trending 140 Chart

Billboard has now officially launched its new Twitter real-time charts that rank popular songs shared on Twitter in the US.

The first chart is called the Trending 140, which shows up-to-the-minute ranking of songs share on Twitter in the US over the last 24 hours. The chart also has a weekly summary called the Twitter Top Tracks.

Another chart called the Twitter Emerging Artists chart ranks the songs shared by new and upcoming artists. Songs on the charts are measured by:

• the inclusion of a link on a tweet to listening platforms like Spotify, Vevo and iTunes.
• the use of hashtags like #nowplaying or #np or the artist's or song's name.
• the use of terms that signify a song such as "music," "song," "track," or "listen."

The Billboard Twitter charts are the latest in Billboard's transition from sales to social media to determine its charts. Other charts based around social media include the Social 50, On-Demand Songs and Streaming Songs. With music sales waning, this is perhaps the only way for the magazine and service to remain relevant.

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