iHype

9mo

…I never said one listen should count as one sale.

I don’t have an issue with the way a streaming unit counts. It’s reflective of revenue mostly in comparison to a sale. At the end of the day labels are measuring success based on revenue.

I just clarified that you can absolutely argue music is more popular than ever in terms of population reach but that’s something which a unit doesn’t necessarily reflect.

TheFader

9mo

But you can’t because there was no way to quantify how many people were listening to music on a daily basis before streaming.

Streaming tracks LISTENING

Sales track PURCHASES

Streaming has also inflated popular albums’ sales because of the concept of indefinite sales. An album like Scorpion will probably move close to a million units every 2-4 years for the next 30+ years at minimum because streaming exists. But that was literally impossible before streaming

mangotflu

9mo

i remember everyone used to think streaming would kill albums

but it feels like albums are now bigger than ever

TheFader

9mo

Drake is the biggest rap artist of all time, arguably.

Kendrick Lamar has the biggest rap song of both the 2010s and the 2020s.

Both of these statements are true at the same time. It is not disrespect to the other one to admit the truth of each of these statements

e t

9mo

Drake has only 3 solo diamond singles. The rest either have features or are features.

Mafia Boss

9mo

Disagree on biggest rap song of 2010s if you saying thats goosebumps.

highest certified ≠ biggest

iHype

9mo

Right… you assume Scorpion will still be casually listened to by millions of people 30+ years later because streaming has made albums more widely consumed and available than ever 😭

TheFader

9mo

I promise you that more people heard Thriller during its opening week than the amount of people that heard The Tortured Poets Department during its opening week

You are severely misinterpreting the data

50x more people can listen to an album now but it wouldn’t count 50x as much.

And back then, someone could’ve spun Thriller 100 times on its opening day, but it wouldn’t have counted as 99 extra sales.

TheFader

9mo

They honestly should’ve always kept them separate and never even came up with the concept of streaming equivalent units

Like “streams” should’ve been the new measure of engagement and sales should’ve just remained a separate thing

TheFader

9mo

Wait… so now it’s not just statistics and certifications that tell us what the biggest songs are?

TheFader

9mo

But KTT told me R&B doesn’t perform well commercially I’m confused

Big Dog

9mo

Oof.. over double Kendrick. Wtf.

TheFader

9mo

It’s one of the most popular albums of all time—why would it not be still listened to 30 years later?

TheFader

9mo

Why do y’all still say stuff like this in shock? Drake is arguably the most popular rapper ever, Kendrick isn’t.

iHype

9mo

There wasn’t millions of people still revisiting MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, etc albums that went Diamond in future decades. They were taken off the shelves after their initial run, collected dust in people’s houses, and people kept it pushing. Absolutely nobody remembered them or was still replaying those CDs by the 2000s lol.

Any big album in the 2010s/2020s is basically gonna stay on rotation to some degree and get revisited by millions each year.

Hell even Fetty Wap got songs from that 2015 album going viral again and recharting in 2025 and that’s the closest thing to a 90s Rap fad in that time.

Graduation, Take Care, Good Kid, etc are literally being introduced to millions of new people every year with a whole new generation cause streaming. It was very rare for albums to have that type of cross-generational life before streaming. Same with Taylor’s discography revival.

Albums have an unlimited shelf life now and keep reaching millions and millions every year with streaming. As I said before newer albums just haven’t had the time yet to comparably have those trajectories.

Big Dog

9mo

Bruh I literally only do it to troll LMFAO

Big Dog

9mo

Oof.. over double Kendrick. Wtf.

Blue Man

9mo

yep fader was yapping too much so i had to remind everyone how big the gap is still

TheFader

9mo

I think I’ve said at least 25 times in this thread that Drake is the biggest rapper of all time, arguably. You don’t have to remind anyone of that, nigga we know