POWIDL ARMY STREAM FORCE ONE
While global charts are important, we need to do better on local charts to show that demand for BTS exists here as well!
Austrian charts work differently from the USA or Germany, so we need to revise our habits if we want our guys to chart well here too :)
What can we do?
Sharing Apple Music family plans: 6 accounts in the same country can join a family. (This reduces the cost to less than 3 Euros per premium streaming account!)
Learn rules to stream properly and efficiently: Focus on premium streams and also stream b-sides!
Learn rules to buy properly and efficiently: Buy single-tracks seperately and then complete the album! Download your purchases!
Requesting radio to introduce BTS & members to more general public
Making and distributing flyers, QR codes etc for offline promo ;)
How do Austrian charts work?
SINGLE CHARTS
In Austria the official single charts are calculated combining sales (=in our case digital downloads, single CDs from BTS & members are not available here) and streams (both premium and free streams count but are weighted differently. Both audio and video streams count the same)Digital Downloads: Buy the track and any versions/remixes seperately
Buying platforms include: iTunes, Amazon, QobuzStreams:Both premium and free (=ad-based) streams count, but premium (=paid subscription) streams are weighted much more heavily.
The only numbers I found are from 2020 so it might have changed , but to get a feeling for the conversion:
100 premium streams = 1 sale.
I found no Austria-specific numbers for free streams, but for global charts they are weighed three to five times less than premium streams.Streaming platforms include: Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Youtube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer
ALBUM CHARTS
An album is eligible for album charts if it has a minimum of 6 songs. Versions are allowed, e.g. FACE, Layover have 6 tracks, including one alternate version of another track & both charted.
In Austria the official album charts are calculated combining sales (both physical and digital downloads) and streams (premium only, excluding singles)Physical Albums: buy physical albums (up to 4 per receipt, any more will get filtered out!!) at MediaMarkt, Müller, Libro
CAUTION: Weverse store and online kpop stores do not count for our charts! Neither do physical albums from Amazon (Amazon is digital-only for us)!Downloads: Buy the title track separately and then the whole album (there's a "complete the album" option on iTunes and Amazon, use it!)Buying platforms include: iTunes, Amazon, QobuzStreams: Only premium streams count for album charts.
Also: there's no double counting for us! A song can count either for single charts or for album charts.
This means: The two most-streamed songs of an album will count ONLY for singles charts, NOT for album charts.
Only B-side songs will count for the album charts!In fact, only the 12 most-streamed songs of an album count for any charts:
2 songs (up to 3 in some cases, e.g. Golden) for single charts and up to 10 songs towards the album chart.
This means that if an album has more than 12 songs the least streamed ones will not contribute at all.
According to media (from 2020):
1000 (premium, bside) streams = 1 album saleStreaming platforms include: Spotify premium, Apple Music, Youtube premium, Youtube Music premium, Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal, Deezer premium
Both these charts are calculated weekly using data gathered from Friday to Thursday, the resulting top 75 tracks and albums are published on the following Tuesday evening (usually, sometimes Wednesday morning) here:
https://austriancharts.at/charts/singles
https://austriancharts.at/charts/alben
Note that only the ranking is published, no information about sales figures or stream numbers is provided.
Why focus on Apple Music?
available on all devices + web version
premium streams only
much less filtering than platforms with free tier. This means: High (if any!) cap for daily streams per song, less filler songs necessary in focus playlists. Much more efficient!
superior sound quality!
pays the artists much more money per stream than most other streaming platforms
connects to Stationhead (currently iOS and web version only, android is still in the works...)
lots of Apple music charts so we can monitor our progress:
- Daily Top 100 Global
- Daily Top 100 Austria
- Daily Top 25 Vienna
- Daily Top 200 Albums Austria
- Daily Top 200 MV Austria
- K-pop Top 100 realtime chart Austria
- K-pop Top 100 Album realtime chart Austria
- K-pop Top 100 MV realtime chart AustriaApple Music charts are seen as more authentic than Spotify and YouTube by radio/industry people (streaming farms are harder to set up without free accounts...)
Family plans available for up to 6 people in the same country, that way a premium account costs less than 3 Euro per month per person!
How to Buy a Song/Album?
Buy physical albums preferably from MediaMarkt, Müller or Thalia. Preorder if you can because they tend to underestimate demand. Bulk purchases of the same album (=more than 4 in one cart) will get filtered out and will not count! Weverse and online Kpop stores count for global charts only, but NOT for Austrian charts! Ordering physical albums on Amazon will not only not count for Austrian charts but unless explicitly stated otherwise does not count for any charts at all.The digital buying platforms that count for both Austrian and global charts are iTunes, Amazon and Qobuz.
iTunes is the preferred buying method as iTunes Charts are closely monitored and seen as somewhat prestigious. There are Austrian, European and Global iTunes Charts. While getting #1 there is nice and we want to do this for all new (and some older) releases, we need more than those 30-ish sales to get into our actual charts!In all cases:
To buy a single: Always buy the track and any versions and remixes separately. Remixes are often released in a set that shows up as an 'album', buy all tracks separately!To buy an Album: buy the title track seperately and then complete the album! Worst case you have to buy one track + the album, but do not buy all tracks separately!iTunes: App only, available on Apple devices (iPhone, ipad, Mac,...) as well as on Windows PCs. Create an Apple ID here if you don't have one already. Get iTunes for Windows here. Search for a song and click "Purchase". For Albums, purchase the title track and then click "Complete the album"
Careful with preorders: If preordering an album this will only count as an album sale, not as a sale for the title track and will not contribute to single charts! Better to wait until release, buy title track and complete the album!
Amazon: Can be accessed on any browser. Make an Amazon account (prime not necessary) here if you don't have one already, look for songs/albums in the "Digital Music" category. Carefully check spelling/artist/label as there might be impostor artist accounts!
Buy the title track and complete the album for album purchases. Don't forget to download your purchase, otherwise it will not count!
Qobuz: Web based, can be accesssed on any browser. Make an account here, look for artist/song/album. Buy title track seperately along with the entire album.
Don't forget to download your purchase, otherwise it will not count!
Radio Requests
Radio does not factor into offical single or album charts in Austria.BUT: Radio means exposure and can go a long way to increase knowledge and acceptance among the general public and maybe we can even gain more ARMY! Or just casual listeners, which is fine too.
Ö3: Is our main focus because it has the biggest reach, but only lets us request songs they already have in their system. They are required to play the to 40 charting songs each weeks and those are guaranteed to be available for request. We do not know on what basis other songs are added to their repertoire or not since the songs available for request (and those not available) seem a bit random.
Currently the songs available for request are: Fake Love, IDOL ft. Nicki, Boy with Luv, Dream Glow, ON ft. SIA, Song Request ft. SUGA, Dynamite & Dynamite Holiday ver., Life Goes On, Butter & Butter Holiday ver., Permission to Dance, My Universe, Left & Right ft. JK, Like Crazy, Seven, 3D, Who.
Song requests can be sent in via website, WhatsApp, Instagram, phone call, etc. Requests sent as voice message to be played on air seem to have a higher chance of being fulfilled.
Contact info here:
https://oe3.orf.at/kontakt/stories/kontakt/
Requests are played during "Song deines Lebens", Mo-Thu at 12-13h, replay available online. Liking the BTS songs that have been played during the show increases their chances of being played again in the future: search for the show and song manually and press the thumbs up here:
https://oe3.orf.at/player
They also have a listener's chart which ranks the most requested songs of the week. It doesn't matter if they ended up playing the songs on air or not, the chat is purely request-based. Also possible to "Like" songs there:
https://oe3dabei.orf.at/index.php?pageID=202Krone Hit: requests possible via email, Facebook, WhatsApp or phone call. Follow the link for contact details:
https://www.kronehit.at/musik-und-podcasts/musikwunsch/Radio Energy: write-in form for requests, any song can be requested it seems.
https://energy.at/music/musikwunsch/