Tag Archives: charts

What makes a hit? On Tiktok and Spotify, listeners only partly decide

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TikTok is built for people to create and share their own content, so dance music and indie artists fill the platform’s Top 100. On Spotify, love songs and music from major record labels dominate its top charts. On both platforms, people’s preferences only partly explain what songs become hits.

A new University of California, Davis, study examined how the data-driven business models of TikTok and Spotify shape both the music artists make, and the songs people listen to. The study was published Feb. 27 in the journal Information, Communication & Society, and co-authored by researchers from Renmin University of China, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University.

“Hit song charts represent both user feedback and selections curated by the platforms’ algorithms that also influence users’ choices,” said Cuihua (Cindy) Shen, a UC Davis professor of communication and the study’s corresponding author. “By publishing hit song charts, platforms are declaring what songs are visible and dominant.”

How hits happen

TikTok is a global leader in user-generated short videos, frequently featuring remixes and clips of popular songs. Spotify is a major player in distributing full-length albums. With TikTok’s roughly 1.6 billion monthly active users and Spotify’s 675 million, both platforms serve massive and truly global audiences.

In analyzing differences between the platforms and 2020-22 data from their respective Top 100 hit song charts, researchers found significant differences in what makes a hit.

On TikTok, popularity was driven more by dance genres that suit the platform’s emphasis on user engagement and its popular “dance challenges,” which promotes user videos featuring specific songs and dance moves.

On Spotify, songs about relationships were popular, while songs about politics were unpopular. Spotify had more hit songs produced by major labels and songs in the pop and hip-hop/rap/trap genres. It had a lower proportion of songs from R&B/soul and dance genres.

In the study, TikTok’s Top 100 charts — during the two years analyzed — had 321 songs compared to 1,707 on Spotify. Only 68 hit songs appeared on both platforms within the two-year study period, and a majority entered and exited Spotify’s daily Top 100 charts more quickly than on TikTok.

Different platforms, different hits

TikTok and Spotify differ from traditional media such as radio and even MTV. On both apps, user data, such as clicks and subscriptions, are fed into the platforms’ algorithms and influence the music that artists create to meet demand.

This study highlights how the differences between the two platforms affect what makes a Top 100 hit. Spotify focuses on streaming full-length music and provides detailed metadata, including lyrics. TikTok features clipped snippets of songs that serve as background to users’ video content.

“Our study suggests that Spotify acts as a primary distribution channel while TikTok serves as a space for creative re-interpretation,” said Shen.

New UN report charts path out of debt crisis threatening global development

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On Friday, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed launched a new report, Confronting the Debt Crisis: 11 Actions to Unlock Sustainable Financing.

She was joined by experts Mahmoud Mohieldin and Paolo Gentiloni, along with Rebeca Grynspan, Head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

A growing crisis

“Borrowing is critical for development,” Ms. Mohammed said, but today, “borrowing is not working for many developing countries, over two-thirds of our low income countries are either in debt distress or at a high risk of it.”

The crisis is accelerating, Ms. Grynspan warned.

More than 3.4 billion people now live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health or education – 100 million more than last year.

Debt service payments by developing countries have soared by $74 billion in a single year, from $847 billion to $921 billion.

“The nature of this crisis is mostly connected to the increase of debt servicing costs,” Mr. Gentiloni explained. “Practically, the debt services costs doubled in the last ten years.”

Prepared by the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Group on Debt, the report reinforces the commitments put forward in the Compromiso de Sevilla, the outcome document of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development – taking place next week.

A path forward

The report outlines 11 actions that are both technically feasible and politically viable.

Mr. Mohieldin explained that the recommendations fall under two key goals: providing meaningful debt relief and preventing future crises.

It identifies three levels of action:

At the multilateral level: repurpose and replenish funds to inject liquidity into the system, with targeted support for low-income countries.

At the international level: establish a platform for borrowers and creditors to engage directly.

At the national level: strengthen institutional capacity, improve policy coordination, manage interest rates, and bolster risk management.

“These are eleven proposals that are doable and that only need the political will of all the actors to be able to make them real,” Ms. Grynspan stressed.

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