It seems like everyday we’re bombed with the evidence of numbers, be it plays on Soundcloud or views on Youtube and in turn that has somehow become the benchmark for quality when in some cases it really speaks about the reach.

To be fair, good music will always be good music and from that will be mega-plays on some standout tracks, take a look at any Porter Robinson output and sure enough they’ll be a mountain of support, same goes for Deadmau5, Diplo and Dillon Francis or any modern producer with a bit of character and actual skills.

The real head scratcher and what gruffs me is seemingly average tracks earning monster organic, real plays on different platforms that maybe shouldn’t really be that high. This then becomes an important part of the messaging from the artist with the reach actually being translated to quality and really misrepresenting what comes from those plays.

Whats the damage and reasons for it all though? A few things;

Well the age old argument that labels, radio stations and bookers blindly take to numbers to justify the value of that artist to sign them or reason to book them for a headline spot at a hefty sized festival. This could stagnate what users are listening to or watching, thinking and slow the process of evolution within the scene. That then put’s the pressure on marketing foremost and quality after.

There’s also the catch 22 of Soundclouds autoplay feature that could be affecting things. While it does help you discover music you haven’t heard of before you can’t ignore that residual play action on following tracks could be upping those precious stats.

Big Youtube channels have always been a mystery to me, although there is personal curation if you upload a track and your two million subscribers get pushed to watch it, your going to clock some serious numbers! It’s better of course to acknowledge that the owners of these channels do it for the love and hopefully not for the sweet cash they may be offered to premiere something.

Lastly its a big distraction, the fanfare surrounding it can be a bit much as we’re forced to swallow the fact that a track has had “OVER 100,000 PLAYS” with “THANKYOU SO MUCH TO MY FANS AND FAMILY AND BLAH BLAH BLAH” when in reality it could just be again reaching those people rather than pleasing them.

Of course it’s all perception as to what good music is, but i’d like to see a few indicators move in to help figure out whats quality music using real time numbers.

How about if there was an incomplete player and complete player numbers? Those that managed to make it all the way through the track and those that ditched it before even making it half way through as a way to really know how the track or remix performs.

We know Youtube use this in the form of a thumbs up or thumbs down and helps visualise a clearer story. Would you want Soundcloud to maybe approach this form of action?

At the end of the day both platforms do play an important role in the music community and we don’t necessarily want to shun them, just tighten things up a little to properly represent good music versus those well marketed or accidentally popular.

Let good music have a chance!