Test Drive: BuzzAngle offers new interactive spin on music charts

BuzzAngle song chartBillboard and Nielsen have long been the standard for music charts, but a new contender is joining the field. BuzzAngle Music it the new kid on the block, and it’s offering some unique features to stand out from the old guard.

The charts display with several drop-down menus at the top, so you can tailor exactly what you want to see data for. The options include normal metadata such as dates, genres, and release dates, but you can look even deeper. For instance, Song Project lets you break out sales versus streams. Get even more granular by breaking out whether those streams were from an on-demand service or a lean-back radio, and then whether the on-demand service was audio or video. This means that you can determine that the top EDM song getting on-demand audio streaming in Los Angeles is Major Lazer’s “Lean On,” whereas the top debut rock tune by sales in Chicago is “Up In Flames” by a band called blessthefall.

The album and artist charts gives a similar degree of depth into performance. Did you know that Radiohead’s old album “In Rainbows” was one of the top five best-selling LPs in Austin last week? Or that New York’s favorite artist by song streams is rapper Meek Mill, while The Weeknd has the top spot for Boston?

buzzangle charts consumption typeBuzzAngle counts an album project unit as 1,500 on-demand audio streams. One song project is considered 150 on-demand audio streams. With two stalwarts still crunching their numbers each week, it’s hard to say what kind of impact BuzzAngle Music will have. They are launching alongside the switch to Friday as the global music release day, which could help build initial interest. Whether or not these charts exert much influence, they’re certainly an insightful resource for industry and music aficionados alike.

Anna Washenko