Harry Styles' Sign Of The Times Artwork [Columbia]
Beyond the release of the song itself, one of the biggest news stories on Friday and Saturday concerned the Spotify glitches that were affecting Harry Styles’ “Sign Of The Times.”
Specifically, the song was difficult (and, at times, impossible) to find using standard searches like “Harry Styles” and “Sign Of The Times.” It was not even the top hit for “Harry Styles Sign Of The Times.”
It seemed intuitive that the glitches affected the song’s opening day streaming numbers. While the opening day number (2.17 million streams/#20 on the global chart, per SpotifyCharts.com) would have been strong in most cases, it seemed underwhelming given the hype and passionate fan support for Styles’s debut solo single.
The issues were resolved Saturday, but the numbers have not markedly grown.
“Sign Of The Times” generated 2.26 million global streams (#19 on the chart) on Saturday and 2.18 million global streams (#17) on Sunday.
On the one hand, the data does not prove that the glitches had no impact on Friday’s numbers. The song was difficult to locate at a time when interest was at a peak; surely, some streams were lost.
On the other hand, the notion that ~2 million daily streams drastically understated interest appears debunked. That is what the song is doing without the impact of glitches; it, therefore, accurately reflects current streaming interest.
Because a customer can only buy a song once (barring gifting, account manipulation, etc) but can continuously stream, Spotify data (particularly for official radio singles) is not nearly as front-loaded as iTunes sales data. As a recent, high-profile example, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” did more streams on its first Saturday and Sunday than it did on its first Friday — and it wasn’t affected by a Friday glitch.
So while “Sign Of The Times” would have obviously done more than 2.17 million global streams had Friday’s glitches not existed, there is little reason to believe it would have done something like 5 or 6 million.
Granted, there is another factor to consider: playlist placement. While “Sign Of The Times” is #1 on New Music Friday and near the top of the Pop Rising playlist, it has a surprisingly low position on the popular Today’s Top Hits list. Stronger positioning on Today’s Top Hits would surely yield more streams.