29 April 2011
This week we took the decision to stop publishing certain charts. This is not a decision we took lightly, and the aim was to remove the burden of supporting some less popular charts in order to enhance the functionality and value we can add to the more popular charts.
To this end, as of today's date new data for Film, iPhone App and iPad App charts will no longer be available via itunescharts.net. These charts were the least popular on the site and didn't show any growth in traffic that suggested there was sufficient demand for us to continue making them available.
We feel disappointed that this decision had to be taken, but undertook extensive research before doing so. The figures below show percentage traffic to each chart type in each country.
| Content | Whole Site | United States | United Kingdom | Germany | Australia | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Songs | 49.2 | 59.1 | 48.0 | 43.1 | 55.5 | 55.9 |
| Albums | 36.2 | 28.3 | 32.7 | 37.0 | 25.6 | 35.1 |
| Podcasts | 9.5 | 6.5 | 12.2 | 15.1 | 17.1 | 5.7 |
| TV | 2.7 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 0.3 | 2.9 |
| Film | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | n/a |
| Apps | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.8 | n/a | 0.3 | n/a |
| iPad Apps | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.7 | n/a | 0.8 | n/a |
| Content | 2010 | 2011 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | |
| songs | 53.25 | 46.06 | 46.69 | 48.89 | 42.07 | 51.86 | 37.55 | 49.00 | 52.05 | 49.21 |
| albums | 24.25 | 19.95 | 23.68 | 23.77 | 38.98 | 31.38 | 40.89 | 29.85 | 38.64 | 36.15 |
| podcasts | 13.90 | 13.43 | 10.31 | 15.68 | 12.74 | 6.61 | 10.66 | 12.36 | 5.78 | 9.49 |
| tv-episodes | 5.24 | 3.86 | 3.41 | 3.08 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 6.35 | 2.57 | 1.23 | 2.66 |
| film | 2.82 | 13.62 | 7.97 | 4.96 | 0.95 | 4.83 | 2.16 | 2.57 | 1.17 | 0.84 |
| apps | 0.54 | 3.08 | 2.01 | 1.50 | 0.66 | 0.96 | 1.11 | 1.97 | 0.75 | 1.09 |
| ipad-apps | 0.00 | 0 | 5.93 | 2.12 | 1.26 | 1.00 | 1.28 | 1.69 | 0.38 | 0.55 |
The iTunes song and album charts are focussed on brand new releases - as soon as those songs and albums are available anywhere in the world, they appear in the charts. For film, however, the public are far more interested in the immediate figures from the box office as a film is released to cinemas. The iTunes film charts are much further down the line and, therefore, of much less interest.
Podcast charts, despite inhabiting a much smaller niche of popular culture than film, remain of high value as iTunes are the metric of success for podcast channels. Tv Episode charts garner more interest in film charts due to the immediacy - TV shows are generally available straight after a live broadcast, rather than there being a 6 to 8 month lag.
As far as app charts are concerned, these apps are available to Apple products only. The relevant hardware have their own, baked-in, access to charts. It's way more convenient on an iPhone and/or iPad to browse chart listings in the bespoke iTunes application.
Removing the cost of supporting these charts means that we can offer site upgrades and more functionality in the future :) It also means that all countries now feature the same charts - previously we were unable to provide film charts for some countries because iTunes wasn't selling downladable movies in those territories.
We've got a handful more features that we're beavering away on in the secrecy of our sheds - so keep watching the skies!