Billboard's Hot 100. American Top 40. These are terms any music lover of any is instantly familiar with. And now there's a new one: Apple Music Top 100.
There's a Global Top 100 if you want to see what's currently ranking #1 in the world on Apple Music, as well as 115 regional Top 100 charts — one for each country in which Apple Music has a presence. They're all updated at 12am PST, every day and you can follow and stream any of the playlists and download them to listen to offline.
If you want to check out some of the new Top 100 playlists, here are the links:
- Top 100 Global
- Top 100 Canada
- Top 100 USA
- Top 100 UK
- Top 100 Russia
- Top 100 Germany
- Top 100 Australia
- Top 100 France
- Top 100 Mexico
- Top 100 China
It's an interesting move by Apple. Different top charts compose their rankings differently. In the old days, they were based on retail sales. Some now weigh sales versus streams, or free versus paid streams, to come up with arbitrary ratios that please whomever is winning at the moment.
Free trial aside, Apple Music is a paid service — and a rapidly growing one — and because Apple isn't conflating these new Top 100 lists with iTunes purchases, what they lack in universality they make up for legibility: Everyone knows exactly what they represent.
While the industry may enjoy yet another chart to climb and claim dominance of, what'll be interesting to see is how popular these new charts turn out to be with Apple Music subscribers.
In the age of streaming, where almost any song is available almost any time or place, will people still care what a majority of other subscribers are listening to any given day, either globally or on a regional basis?
Or do new technologies demand new opportunities? (I'm still waiting for the "top 10 songs people who listen to 95% of the same music I do, but I haven't discovered yet" playlist.)
Apple Music's new Top 100 Charts are all playlists accessible to subscribers from the Browse tab in the Top Charts section.
Available on iOS, macOS, and Android, if you're not yet a subscriber, you can try out a free 3-month trial any time and see what you think.
