“I will survive”: online streaming and the chart survival of music tracks

Digital streaming has had a profound effect on the commercial music sector and nowaccounts for 80% of industry revenues in the United States. This study investigatesthe consumption of music on digital streaming platforms by analyzing the factorsaffecting the chart survival of individual music tracks. Our data are taken from theSpotify Global Top 200 between January 2017 and January 2020, containing obser-vations on 3,007 unique tracks by 642 artists over 1,087 days. We identify a numberof unique consumption traits applicable to online streaming services, which we useto explain variations in chart longevity. We find a positive association between theamount of time a track spends in the chart and the involvement of a major label. Wealso find that the level of competition from other chart entries, as well as some ele-ments related to the pattern of diffusion, associates significantly with the likelihoodof chart survival. The study highlights several important managerial implications forkey industry stakeholders.