Today YouTube launched a new music video chart, called the YouTube 100. It’s a popularity index that measures "song traffic" for official music videos and user-uploaded videos. YouTube 100 has similarities to other online music charts, such as Ultimate Chart, MTV’s Music Meter and We Are Hunted. However there are two main differences between the YouTube 100 and other online music charts. Firstly, the presence of user-generated and viral music, such as the (in)famous Rebecca Black. Secondly, YouTube’s chart is focused on videos – whereas the others are focused on the music, with the videos (if offered) being supplementary. Perhaps the second is not much of a distinction in the end, because one of the main use cases for YouTube is to listen to music. The presence of 8 music videos in the top 10 YouTube videos of all time is proof enough of that.
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Let’s check out the new YouTube 100 and see what other trends we can glean.
The content in YouTube’s music top 10 is somewhat similar to that of Ultimate Chart – and Billboard for that matter. 4 of the top 5 on YouTube are also in the Ultimate Chart’s top 10. That’s almost certainly due to the mainstream popularity of those 4 artists: Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry, Chris Brown and Bruno Mars. In other words, that music would be at or near the top of any pop music chart.
I like the breakdown of the YouTube 100 homepage into different genres, including ones not traditionally seen in music charts: New Age, Stage & Screen, Comedy/Spoken (that one is not actually music, but whatever). Also the events listing, powered by Songkick, is a nice touch.
YouTube is planning to archive the charts "for future exploration of original recordings, music memes, and pop hits."
While any top 10 music list featuring Rebecca Black (who is currently #8) is of questionable legitimacy, at least in terms of hipness, YouTube 100 is nevertheless a handy addition to the online music ecosystem.
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