This past July, Taylor Swift swiftly rose to the top of themusic charts with her eighth studio album, folklore. This past December 11, Swift released her ninth studio album, evermore, a kind of sequel to folklore, with similar indie, folk, and alternative vibes.

According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology, which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in daily music charts evermore made Swift evermore powerful on the charts, quickly earning her the top positions as The Most Streamed Artist, The Highest Earning Artist, and the Most Influential Artist, which she attained already the day before the release of her album, in anticipation after its surprise announcement on social media.

The Most Influential Artist, which encompasses not only streams and revenue, but social media presence, digital downloads, and concert ticket sale, is Music Maven’s highest measure of musical excellence online. As in the case of folklore in the summer, Swift’s sweep of all three categories with evermore as winter nears is an overwhelming confirmation of fan approval for her music.

In terms of Swift’s ranking as The Most Streamed Artist, she won 50.4M streams the first day of the evermore release, lower than her 66.7M streams for the folklore debut day, but still higher than any other artist. The same was true of revenue on day one of evermore: with $142.2K on the first day of its release, Swift swept up The Highest Earning Artist accolade. She remains at number one in both categories.

As an index of her overwhelming success, all 15 tracks on evermore made it to the top 20 Most Streamed Songs. Led by “willow,” “champagne problems,” and “gold rush,” only songs by Bad Bunny and Kid Cudi, who released Man on the Moon III: The Chosen this weekend, could compete with Taylor Swift.

Bad Bunny’s “DÁKITI” has since returned to number one, after Swift lowered his hit single to number three, and a more varied series of tracks have repopulated the Most Streamed Songs.

At the same time, the uniform takeover by evermore of the top 20 Most Streamed fortified Swift’s sweeping domination of the music charts.

By Vince, December 15, 2020

Jan 25, 2021

The New Year in Music Charts: Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo

At the beginning of the New Year, 2021, only two artists have attained and maintained dominance on themusic charts, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo. Both artists sing in smooth, calming, and melodic tones. Despite their many differences, these two artists probably owe their incredible popularity to the soothing effects of their music as the pandemic continues, and as political transitions strain a weary nation. Their music is the perfect soundtrack for New Years’ introspection and reflection, at a time when it is hard to even think about resolutions for an uncertain future.

Morgan Wallen is a country singer, the son of a preacher, from Tennessee, and Olivia Rodrigo is a teenage Disney actress and pop singer from California. Wallen is from Sneedville, a rural town on Tennessee’s northern border with Kentucky, far from Nashville. Rodrigo is from Temecula, a small city between San Diego and Riverside. Their music captures and represents their respective rural and suburban environments, and appeals to local rather than urban, metropolitan, or big-city sensibilities.

Both sing about love, mostly unrequited. Their music is about how to deal with heartbreak. In the case of Wallen, solutions include whiskey glasses, mullet cuts, and drunk dialing. In the case of Rodrigo, solutions include getting that first driver’s license, driving through the suburbs, and looking for lost love.

These formulas work. According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology, which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in daily music charts, Morgan Wallen is the undisputed champion of the artist charts so far this year, and Rodrigo’s single, “drivers license,” is by far the greatest hit of the year so far.

Since Wallen released his second studio album, Dangerous: The Double Album, on January 8, 2021, he has been The Number One Most Streamed and Highest Earning Artist. He debuted with 28M streams and $90.7K on the first day, and while his daily streams and revenue are less than half of that now, there have been no real challengers to his dominance on the artist charts over the last weeks. Wallen does not dominant the song charts: only one song from his latest album is in the top 20 Most Streamed Songs, “Wasted on You,” now at fourteenth most streamed, with little over a million daily streams. Wallen owes his artist chart power to the 30 tracks on his double album, which accumulate more total streams than any other, rather then just one or two hit singles.

Since Rodrigo released her single, “drivers license,” also on January 8, that song has been The Number One Most Streamed and Highest Earning Song over the last weeks. The song so far peaked at 7M streams and $23.4K on January 13. It has recently begun to falter in competition with previously-released tracks like Bad Bunny’s “DÁKITI,” but the 67M streams of the song’s music video on YouTube and 196M streams on Spotify in less than a month makes it this year’s breakout hit. Since “drivers license” is the lead single to a promised EP, there is not yet any studio album to accompany that song’s success, which explains Rodrigo’s dominance of the song charts rather than the artist charts.

On their own, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo are practically unstoppable on their respective charts this year. A Wallen-Rodrigo collaboration would likely lock down the charts even farther into the New Year.

By Vince, January 24, 2021

Dec 6, 2020

Bad Bunny Hops Atop the Music Charts, Again

Earlier this year, on February 29, Leap Day Year, Bad Bunny leaped up the music charts with his second studio album, YHLQMDLG, which stands for “Yo hago lo que me da la gana.” which means “I do whatever I want.”

This weekend, on November 27, Bad Bunny hopped atop the music charts again with the release of his third studio album, El Último Tour Del Mundo, which means “The World’s Last Tour.”

Both albums made Bad Bunny the Most Streamed Artist. YHLQMDLG brought Bad Bunny 24M streams on its first day out. El Último Tour did better, raising the silly rabbit 30M streams on day one.

According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology, which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in dailymusic charts, while this album is not Bad Bunny’s first tour, and may not be his last, it made him the Most Streamed and Highest Earning Artist, with $55.7K in the latter category.

The Spanish songs by the rap, trap, reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico also dominate the song charts throughout the United States.

The top song is “DÁKITI,” featuring Jhay Cortéz, which was released a month ago as the album’s lead single. The word “dákiti” has no obvious meaning in Spanish, but it is the name of a beach in San Juan. Of course, the music video features lots of booty shaking on the beach. With 219M streams on Spotify and 225M views of the music video on YouTube, “DÁKITI” is now the Most Streamed and Highest Earning Song, with 4.9M streams and $6.1K in the day since it was re-released on El Último Tour Del Mundo.

El Último Tour has 16 tracks. All of those songs are in the top 20 Most Streamed, and the top 5 Most Streamed are all on the album. Only Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body” survived Bad Bunny’s onslaught. “Body” was number one Most Streamed over the last week, and then dropped to second after BTS threw “Dynamite” at the charts, after which Bunny’s tracks pushed most of the top songs down on the charts. “Body” is now seventh Most Streamed, preceded and followed by Bunny tracks.

It is no surprise that English language tracks normally dominate the US song charts. It should also be no surprise that Spanish language tracks can do the same. Bad Bunny’s previous album did it then, and his last album has done it again. While not all of the over 60M Latinos, or people of Latin-American descent in the US, speak or listen in Spanish, many do. And of course there is no need to be Latino or speak Spanish to enjoy music in Spanish.

Bad Bunny and artists like the Colombian Maluma have proven the vast appeal of Spanish language tracks by Latin-American origin artists on US charts, equal to and sometimes greater than English language tracks, mostly by US mainland origin artists.

For example, Maluma’s “Hawái,” released in late July, now has 437M streams on Spotify and 501M views of the music video on YouTube, has been in the top 5 Most Streamed on Music Maven for most of the time since then.

The success of artists like Bad Bunny and Maluma also speaks to musical power and potential beyond the US charts. The potential listenership in Latin America, with its 650M inhabitants in 20 countries, including about 450M Spanish-speakers and over 200M more Portuguese-speakers in Brazil, is also vast, about double that of the US with its 328M inhabitants.

Combining the listeners of Latin-American descent in the US with listeners in Latin America, and all listeners who love Latin-American music, in Spanish or not, the potential for music by artists like Bad Bunny and Maluma is practically limitless.

By Vince, November 29, 2020

Nov 23, 2020

Good News: Megan Thee Stallion Debuts Above the Music Charts

We all need some good news these days. Luckily a rapper from Houston has given us what we need.

Megan Thee Stallion has been one of the most dominant and recognized artists in music for some time now. So it may be surprising that she just released her debut studio album, Good News, this past November 20. But given her prominence in music, it should be no surprise that Megan debuted above all other artists on the music charts this weekend.

According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology, which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in dailymusic charts, the Goods News for Megan Thee Stallion, is that she is now the Most Streamed and Highest Earning Artist, with 10.7M streams and $28.1K, respectively, on the first day of the album’s release.

Just 2 days before she released Good News, Megan, also known as Hot Girl Meg, was outside of the top 100 Most Streamed Artists, at 104. On the day before the release, she jumped up 65 positions to 39 with fans eagerly anticipating her debut. Now at number one Most Streamed, her vertical rise a hundred steps up the ladder in only two days is a feat to behold.

Megan’s success on Good News builds on years of hard work, building name and sound recognition, thanks to major collaborations and loyalty from her fan base, The Hotties.

Her debut builds on the infrastructure of successful EP’s, mixtapes, and singles. Her three EP’s Make It Hot, Tina Snow, and Suga, and a full-length mixtape, Fever, have cemented her success. Suga, from this past May, and Fever, from last year, have kept Megan in the headlines.

Megan is probably most well-known for her singles. Her release of singles like “Girls in the Hood,” this past June placed Megan within the top five Most Streamed Artists. Her release of “Savage,” in March, followed by her blockbuster remix of the song with a fellow Houstonian named Beyoncé in April raised her rank. That remix now has one quarter billion streams on Spotify.

Megan’s collaboration with Cardi B on “WAP,” this past August took her over the top. “WAP” now has half a billion streams on Spotify in only one season, and keeps rising. Last week, “WAP” climbed back up the song charts, to number one Most Streamed on November 17, and still hovers at the top at number two, boosted by Good News.

On Good News, Megan has followed her track record of successful collaborations, with features from top artists like 2 Chainz, Big Sean, DaBaby, SZA, and Young Thug. The “Savage” remix featuring Beyoncé is on there, though there is no collaboration with Cardi. So far, fans most like her solo track offerings on the LP: “Body,” “Shots Fired,” and “Circles.” Only time will tell whether her Hotties most like her solo or collaborative tracks on Good News.

By Vince, November 21, 2020

Nov 15, 2020

Future and Lil Uzi Vert Freeze the Music Charts from Pluto

Astronomers once considered Pluto to be the ninth most distant planet from the sun. With the discovery of other objects orbiting the sun, astronomers redefined Pluto as a dwarf planet. Far from the sun, but not the coldest, Pluto is still freezing. Because Pluto is so cold and remote, it is no surprise that both Future and Lil Uzi Vert have adopted the iced-out dwarf planet as aliases. Future actually named his debut studio album Pluto, and Lil Uzi Vert has long gone by the name Baby Pluto. Uzi’s most recent album, Eternal Atake, features unidentified beings on Pluto waving at earth and a UFO. So it is only natural that the two Plutos would join forces to release Pluto x Baby Pluto this past Friday the 13th.

Future and Lil Uzi Vert have collaborated numerous times, on songs like “Patek” from this past summer, and many more. And while this is Uzi’s first collaborative studio album, besides a mixtape collaboration with Gucci Mane, Future is a veteran of the collaborative LP, practically dominating the form. Just consider his collaborative album with Drake, What A Time To Be Alive, with its “Jumpman” hit, or his collaboration with Young Thug, SUPER SLIMEY. Future’s latest collaboration with Lil Uzi Vert should therefore be no surprise.

Nor should this album’s success be a surprise. Both Future and Uzi released chart-freezing solo albums this year. When Uzi released Eternal Atake this past March, right before the pandemic hit, he racked up an astonishing 40M streams on the first day of that release. Future halved that with almost 20M streams the day he released High Off Life this past May during the dead of the pandemic, making him by far the Most Streamed Artist of that time.

According to Music Maven’s proprietary technology, which provides the most current and accurate data on the performance of all artists and songs in dailymusic charts, because of Pluto x Baby Pluto, Future is by far the Most Streamed and Highest Earning Artist, with 16.2M streams and $45.5K, respectively, on the first day.

The individual tracks on Pluto x Baby Pluto have not overwhelmingly dominated the song charts like the until-then most streamed album, Ariana Grande’s Positions, released the week before last. They have still done better than the songs of any other artist or album this weekend. Among the Most Streamed Songs, Pluto x Baby Pluto has 3 songs on the top 10, and 6 in the top 20. The most popular song, “Stripes Like Burberry,” debuted at fourth Most Streamed and third Highest Earning, with 1.7M streams and $4.7K, respectively.

Billie Eilish now dominates the song charts, because of the release of her latest single, “Therefore I Am.” Partly on the strength of the music video, now at 23M views on YouTube, “Therefore I Am,” rose to 2.5M streams and $6.8K on its second day out, making it the Most Streamed and Highest Earning song this weekend. The video, which features Billie running wildly through a deserted mall, swinging around Wetzel’s Pretzels, and guzzling Hot Dog on a Stick lemonade, while binging fries and Chipotle chips, must capture every teen’s fantasy as this pandemic goes into overdrive. She should know: she directed the video.

The Plutos do not have a comparable video to power a song, just a video for “That’s It,” which at 2.7 views on YouTube, is a dwarf planet compared to “Therefore I Am,” with almost 20 times more views. Still, “That’s It,” is trending faster on YouTube than “Therefore I Am,” at 11th versus 15th, respectively. That is unfortunate for Future and Lil Uzi Vert, because the music charts show that “That’s It” is not their top song, not even in the top 20 Most Steamed, like 6 of their other tracks. If Future and Uzi release another music video, most likely for one of their top songs, now “Stripes Like Burberry,” “Drankin N Smokin,” and “Real Baby Pluto,” they could have a chance to overtake Billie Eilish on the song charts. Until then, they will have to be content with freezing the artist charts in their favor.

By Vince, November 15, 2020