As another day dawns an exciting piece of technology news has emerged. This time Spotify is in the limelight with its “what you’re listening to chart.” For the first time, a clear and concise breakdown of what we are listening to rather than buying has emerged. With growing evidence that streaming rather than purchasing may well be the consumers choice for the 21st century, the suggestion is that the chart will provide a more real and accurate representation than the Top 40 itself. In fact when Bono and The Edge came in to Absolute Radio to promote the current U2 album, Bono expressed a desire to find out not what the average music fan was buying, but more what people were listening to. He may now have an answer.

With album sales slumping globally in an ever increasing digital market as well as a developing culture of streaming, I predict that before long we will be seeing more and more of these charts and that they will go on to influence radio playlists across the world – And the moment that these charts become “genre-ised,” we will find ourselves in a position where our listeners are directly telling us what they want to hear on the radio.

For the record, today’s chart on Spotify shows that Milow’s Ayo Technology is at number 1. With ten plays on Absolute Radio in the last week and no other UK radio airplay, we have shown just how important these charts will be for us in the future.

David