How Have Streaming Services Changed The Top-50 Chart?

The top charts are so different now. Click here to learn how streaming services have changed them.

From vinyl to viral, the top 50 or 100 charts are nothing like they used to be.

Gone are the days when you'd eagerly listen to the radio for the top 50 or top 100 to see how far up your favourite song had made it. Gone are the days when you'd run to the shop to buy a CD of the top 50 or top 100 songs for that year or that time period. And we keep mentioning the top 100 because it's just as popular as the top 50 charts.

Why the dramatic change? Streaming services like Spotify. We no longer only have top 50 or top 100 charts. We have the top 10 of the day, the top 20 for you, the top 30 most streamed songs that month, and the top 50 songs based on your listening this month—the list goes on. It's nowhere near as simple and nostalgic as it once was.

Below, we'll explore why streaming services have taken the top 50 music charts to the extreme and how they've altered how we listen to music.

There's No Such Thing as Top 50 Anymore

Well, there's that, but if you're using a streaming service like Spotify, you'll have to search a lot harder to find it. And it's not like these charts don't exist. You've still got the iconic Billboard Hot 100 and the Official Singles Charts Top 100, but it's simply that people aren't looking at them as much as they once did. In fact, if you Google Top 50 chart songs, the first search result is Spotify's Top 50. The platform has truly taken over.

And the way that streaming services calculate the top 50 singles is different from how we would back in the day. When you'd tune into your radio, all excited to hear your favourite song (it really was a big event), they'd rank the singles by the number of sales, radio airplay, and, in the latter years, streams. Now, with Spotify, Apple Music, and SoundCloud, they're focusing on the number of streams and downloads.

It works similarly for other platforms and how they rank the popularity of services. For example, on casino.com, they'd look at the number of players playing a slot game and rank them in order of popularity. On Spotify, you can see how many people have downloaded a song, and, as logic tells you, the one with the most downloads comes first.

Algorithms on Top of Algorithms

The sanctity of the top 50 and 100 charts is gone. Algorithms on top of algorithms have created a top chart for everything. To find the specific top 50 singles chart, you have to search for it.

Thanks to the algorithms, and, again, looking at Spotify, you're more likely to see your 'Discover Weekly' and 'Release Radar' sections before you see anything else because that's what Spotify wants.

We're in an era where everything is about personalisation and the user getting the most out of their experience using a platform, and that's what these algorithms are doing. They're analysing every song you're listening to and creating personalised playlists of new suggestions. And if it thinks you're listening to songs related to summer, scroll down and you'll see a 'Summer Playlist' pop up. If you're listening to more rock music, scroll down and you might see 'Top Rock Hits'.

For that reason, the algorithms are winning, and the top 50 charts are on the way out.

User-Generated Playlists

We can't lie; user-generated playlists are amazing. To pick your songs and create a playlist full of bangers you love so you never have to rush to skip a song is a dream.

But it's these very user playlists that are changing the way streaming services create top 50 charts (when they create them). The more people adding songs to a playlist, the more likely it is to be charted. And if a lot of people are adding a song to their playlist, the more likely that song will be charted high.

It’s almost like a popularity contest now rather than a simple ranking system based on sales or pure listens. And the playlists themselves have insane influence too. If your song gets added to a big Spotify playlist like 'Today's Top Hits' or 'RapCaviar', you can pretty much guarantee streams will explode overnight.

Even smaller curated playlists that are popular in niche communities have the power to launch a song into semi-stardom. This new system means artists no longer just hope for radio play; they hope for playlist placements and viral moments. It’s a new battleground, and user-generated content is leading the charge.

The traditional top 50 charts haven't exactly vanished, but they have evolved into something almost unrecognisable. Streaming services have ripped up the old rulebook and replaced it with something faster, more personal, and way more complicated. Between algorithms recommending songs you didn’t even know you wanted and users curating their own playlists that go viral, the way we measure musical success has changed forever.

Popnable /Popnable Media