Daily updates on the business of digital music.Digital Notes
A post on Spotify’s blog on Friday has links to playlists that represent the most-streamed songs for 18 cities in the United States during May.
For the most part, the rankings align with the standard pop charts. Gotye’s ubiquitous “Somebody That I Used to Know,” for example, was the top track in most cities, from Los Angeles to Denver to Atlanta. And other popular songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts from that time were also big on Spotify, like Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” and Fun.’s “We Are Young.”
But there are intriguing regional variations. Kanye West’s “Mercy” charted only in Dallas and Houston, while One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” was a uniform hit from sea to teenybopper sea, placing fifth, sixth or seventh in each city. And while Gotye was No. 1 in most places, Ms. Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” beat him along the Eastern Seaboard, in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and New York.
Speaking of New York: It may have some of the lowest per capita country music sales in the nation, but New York was the only city among the 18 tracked by Spotify where a song by the country singer Eric Church reached the streaming Top 10. The title may have something to do with it: It’s called “Springsteen.”
Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.
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