Photograph Credit score: SoundCloud
Which music streaming platform is delivering essentially the most dependable information on play counts? In a shocking flip of occasions, SoundCloud has emerged because the chief in Legitary’s newest DSP transparency and accuracy rankings, surpassing business giants Spotify and Apple Music.
Primarily based on Legitary’s aggregated ‘Anomaly Scores’ for music streaming platforms over the complete 2023 interval, the most recent rating evaluates the accuracy and transparency of reporting practices amongst digital service suppliers (DSPs). Platforms that wildly misreport stream counts have excessive Anomaly Scores and decrease rankings, whereas extra correct platforms carry decrease scores and better rankings.
Legitary, an AI-powered auditing firm primarily based in Vienna, Austria, has lately emerged as a critical participant within the streaming music monitoring and oversight area. The corporate’s analyses at the moment are proving essential to main content material house owners who want to make sure correct reporting and funds from DSPs. However the partnerships don’t finish there: only in the near past, Legitary joined forces with DMN to additional broaden their mission to dramatically enhance accuracy and transparency on streaming platforms.
To this point, Legitary has scanned and monitored billions of streams throughout dozens of DSPs worldwide, analyzing anomalies and aberrations for content material house owners. The outcome: numerous streams at the moment are being assessed as over-counted or under-counted and require additional investigation or corrections.
Simply final yr, Spotify trumped Legitary’s transparency record, although stream-count accuracy and reporting have turn into a separate aggressive enviornment. Enter SoundCloud, which lags far behind Spotify and Apple Music by way of subscribers and revenues however presently boasts essentially the most correct stream counting within the enterprise.
Rounding out the underside is TikTok, a power underachiever. However Legitary famous that TikTok is a extremely viral platform, which introduces distinctive challenges to monitoring giant—and infrequently short-lived—spikes in track performs.
Right here’s Legitary’s newest rating of the highest 10 DSPs worldwide primarily based on total transparency and reporting accuracy.
Outdoors the highest three, different platforms skilled combined outcomes.
Deezer and Apple Music confirmed important enhancements of their reporting accuracy. Nonetheless, YouTube’s rating declined, and TikTok remained among the many lowest performers. This means ongoing inconsistencies in reporting practices throughout the business, although sadly, TikTok has been a constantly low performer in Legitary’s rankings.
Legitary’s CEO, Nermina Mumic, has emerged as an ardent champion of each clear and dependable reporting. “This yr’s rating reaffirms that innovation and a dedication to high quality can disrupt even essentially the most established gamers,” Mumic shared. “Clear and dependable reporting is the cornerstone of a sustainable future for the music business.”
Let’s dig deeper into the Legitary information, we could?
To know the rankings, it’s important to delve into Legitary’s methodology. The corporate’s Anomaly Rating focuses on measuring the magnitude of great under- or over-performances for every DSP relative to its whole stream counts. These points happen when reported streaming numbers are considerably decrease or greater than what could be anticipated primarily based on historic information and different obtainable info, akin to streaming habits on different platforms or in several international locations.
Whereas the precise elements that separated the highest three DSPs stay unclear as a result of shut competitors, some key takeaways emerge. The constant presence of ‘unhealthy’ actors on the backside and higher performers on the high of the rankings means that reporting high quality and monitoring varies considerably amongst DSPs.
Moreover, the rankings reveal that smaller DSPs can match and even exceed the reporting accuracy of bigger platforms. Regardless, Mumic expressed the hope that each DSP boat will proceed to raise their video games and ship extra correct reporting and payouts to rights house owners sooner or later.
“Experiences like our newest DSP rating underscore the essential want for clear analyses of streaming information to make sure accountability and truthful compensation within the music business,” Mumic mentioned. “Ultimately, we’re all a part of the identical ecosystem, and solely by collective efforts can we proceed to raise the integrity of our business.”
