Chart Analysis: The lower end still counts for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards
Welcome to the analysis of the first Music Moves Europe Talent Chart – Artist Chart. Yes, I hear your question: “So…what is it all about?”
This monthly artist chart is basically a tool for the jury of the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards to decide which emerging European artists could be nominated for an award next year. This Artist Chart is based on the weekly data of the Music Moves Europe Talent Charts. And for the weekly chart, we calculate streaming and radio audience figures of European acts outside their country of origin.
But it is also fun to speculate who will be nominated next year… Before we start the fun part, please let me first lead you through some examples, so you will understand the chart much better.
So, as you would have expected, if you see the weekly chart more often, British/American dance pop producers duo Silk City are at #1. They have been on top of the chart for twenty weeks of their 21 weeks run with their track Electricity (Sony), sung by British superstar Dua Lipa. Also during the whole month of January, they have topped the weekly Music Moves Europe Talent Charts, amassing 90 million border crossing audience impressions during that period. As you can see for yourself, in the tab ‘more information’ the act Silk City has reached a total of 669 million border crossing audience impressions so far, of which 651 million were for Electricity alone.
Silk City are currently only with one track in the chart. But British singer-songwriter Jade Bird at #2 in the monthly Artist chart has at the moment three European hits: Love Has All Been Done Before at #6, I Can Get No Joy at #21 and Uh Huh at #29 (all Caroline). This week has been a great week for Jade Bird, while these three tracks together amassed nearly 9 million border crossing audience impressions, setting her total in January at 36 million impressions.
More readers questions: ”I don’t see Alice Merton in the monthly Artist chart, but she is currently with five hits in the weekly”…Simple answer: the German pop singer already has won a European Border Breakers Award (the former Music Moves Europe Talent Award), and as the monthly chart is mainly a tool for future winners, we left her out of the monthly.
“And where is Dua Lipa on her own in the weekly chart, but we still see Los Unidades?”…The British chanteuse is one of the few European acts that has amassed more than a billion audience impressions, so we decided that this benchmark is the cut-off point for the weekly chart. Parts of the British band Coldplay were so smart to rename themselves as Los Unidades for the charity song E-Lo (Sony), and therefore they are counted as a new act and are eligible to be at #3 in the monthly Artist Chart.
One final question: “I see acts appear in the weekly and monthly chart, like British dance act James Hype at #4, which were last year not in the chart anymore.” Good question, the answer lies in the fact that we’ve made the chart rules a little less harsh. In the past, only a two year period from the first European release would count for an artist, but the reality proved that it takes longer to work an act outside of the home country – so now the period is three year from the first release.
So…now the fun part? Yes, but now you understand the game, for this first month I let you do the maths. As the nominees for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards are divided into six categories (Pop, Rock, Electronic, R&B/Urban, Hip Hop/Rap and Singer-Songwriter) the different pop genres also make sense.
As you might have noted, no less than seven acts in the top 10 are British. Good news for Belgian pop singer Angèle at #5, Spanish dance pop act El Profesor at # 7 and German singer dance pop singer Au/Ra at #10, because in the same genre it is likely that the jury chooses to nominate acts from different countries. So for instance: Kojaque, an Irish HipHop/Rap act at #97 distinguish himself from the field of many British pop or rock acts higher up in the charts.
More about that puzzle next month…
Menno Visser
Music journalist and radio professional from The Netherlands
