Rolling Stone to launch music charts

07 May 2019 - Press release

Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) to Power New Charts Featuring Top and Most In-Demand Artists, Albums and Songs

 
Rolling Stone, the leading voice of music and pop culture for over 50 years, and its owner Penske Media Corporation (PMC), leading digital media, publishing, and information services company, today announced the launch of Rolling Stone Charts.
 
The charts, which will launch in to the public on Monday May, 13, will track the popularity and reach of artists, albums, and songs in the United States. Powered by state-of-the-art music analytics service Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music), Rolling Stone Charts are customized for specific content verticals, incorporating digital and physical sales, and on-demand streaming activity.
 
“PMC’s strategy is to constantly evolve our brands and products across media platforms. What’s imperative and exciting about our new Rolling Stone Charts is that it will present a transparent, granular and real-time quantification to accurately reflect listeners’ evolving interests and give insight into worldwide trends,” Jay Penske, the founder, Chairman and CEO of PMC.
 
The first launched charts include:
Rolling Stone Top 100 Songs - a daily chart that ranks the most consumed songs of the week by audience demand, comprised of on-demand audio + video streams, and song sales.
Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums – a weekly chart that ranks the most consumed albums of the week by audience demand, comprised of physical and digital album sales, song sales, on-demand audio + video streams.
Rolling Stone Artist 500 – a weekly chart that ranks the most streamed artists of the week by audience demand, comprised of both on-demand audio + video streams.
Rolling Stone Trending 25 – a weekly chart that ranks the fastest-growing songs of the week measured by consumption of on-demand audio + video streams, physical purchases, digital purchases, and airplay spins (radio). The chart does not measure volume of consumption but rather the highest rates of growth week over week, signaling the songs and artists deserving of attention.
Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25 – a weekly chart that ranks the artists who have charted for the first time, measured by audience demand, including both on-demand audio + video streams.
 
Since its launch as BuzzAngle Music, Alpha Data has been the leading innovator in music-consumption analytics by being the first to offer daily updates; the first to develop a global platform; the first to develop a dashboard-driven system; the first to show streaming data at a market level; and the first to show both major and independent label and distributor market share based on streaming and total consumption. Its methodology allows for more than 10 trillion combinations of individualized reports for albums, songs, artists, labels and distributors.
 
Penske Media Corp. announced in January it had bought a 49% stake in Rolling Stone, after purchasing an initial 51% stake in 2017,  giving the company full control of the storied publishing brand. The company made a strategic investment in Alpha Data in 2018 to deepen the influence and expand exposure of the Alpha Data charts, as well as provide Alpha Data a stronger financial foundation from which to grow.