Elton John Tops Pollstar’s Debut Artist Power Index Combining Ticket Sales, Streaming, Airplay & Social Media

Elton John
Erika Goldring/Getty Images – Elton John
tops Pollstar’s inaugural APX chart. The Piano Man is pictured performing during the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Jan. 19, 2022.

Elton John today crowns Pollstar’s first-ever Artist Power Index (APX), a new weekly ranking of the top 50 music artists based on reported box-office figures from concert touring along with streaming, radio airplay and social media data in association with data partners Mediabase and Chartmetric.

The Artist Power Index (APX), which debuts in Pollstar’s Feb. 7 issue (out today), synthesizes the rankings of the top 1,000 artists in Live, Streaming, Airplay and Social Media. The four music industry verticals are then weighted to determine a final index rank, with the Live ranking (concert ticket sales) most heavily weighted followed by music streaming, radio airplay, and social media giving the most robust, multi-dimensional and current picture of an artist’s presence in the market place available today.

The return of John’s massive “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour in January, for example, is led by his live ranking of four, out of a possible thousand, and is his highest APX metric. Meanwhile, his No 15 streaming and No. 13 airplay rankings, also out of a thousand, are due in large measure to his hit single “Cold Heart (Pnau remix),” a collaboration with Dua Lipa and a mashup of four past singles featured on John’s Lockdown Sessions album (Interscope) released last October, which was enough to propel him to the top of this week’s APX.
This rest of the APX Top Ten include rap sensation Jack Harlow, currently on his “Creme De La Creme Tour;” DaBaby, who most recently played House of Blues Boston; Kane Brown, currently on his “Blessed & Free Tour;” Luke Bryan who is amidst a Las Vegas residency at The Theatre at Resorts World in Las Vegas; the great Billy Joel, who thankfully has resumed his monthly Madison Square Garden residency; Panamanian singer/rapper Sech, promoted by Cardenas Marketing Network; Canadian rocker Bryan Adams who is amidst a European run;  Wizkid who just played two dates in Canada; and Blake Shelton, who is set to the Bud Light Super Bowl Music Festival on Feb. 11 in Los Angeles.

Integral to APX are Pollstar’s data partners Mediabase and Chartmetric. 

Mediabase provides current and historical airplay data for over 2,500 U.S. and Canadian radio stations, satellite radio, and music television. Mediabase’s Airplay Index ranking reflects an artist’s trend over a 3-week period against its current week’s impression total across all monitored U.S. and Canadian radio stations.

Chartmetric is an advanced market intelligence tool for the music industry, collecting artist-related data from multiple sources and surfacing insights in its elegant UI. The Chartmetric social and streaming index reflects an artist’s performance score across different platforms calculated using fanbase metrics (including Spotify followers, playlist counts, Instagram and TikTok followers, YouTube subscribers, Deezer fans) and engagement metrics (such as Pandora streams, YouTube streams, Spotify monthly listeners, Twitter retweets, and Wikipedia page views). These scores are generated every day for the 6M+ artists Chartmetric monitors

For APX live data, Pollstar adds reported ticket sales for headline performances over the last 30 days combined with Pollstar’s 36-month ticket sales average to arrive at a ranking for all reported active tours during the period.
“The Artist Power Index is extraordinary and we’re proud to be partnered with Pollstar in this endeavor,” said Philippe Generali, President and CEO of Mediabase, in a statement. “Our leadership in airplay monitoring gives the Artist Power Index the most accurate and up-to-date airplay information available anywhere.”

Chartmetric Founder and CEO Sung Cho added, “We are very pleased to add our streaming and social insights to the Artist Power Index.  Chartmetric has a mission to aggregate and simplify decision-making in the music space. The Artist Power Index is another example of Chartmetric’s industry-leading data insights coming to bear.”

Last week, Pollstar also released its inaugural ranking of the U.S. Concert Market Rankings based on Pollstar Boxoffice data. Pollstar’s 2022 Concert Market Rankings reflect the top 100 markets for live entertainment based on reported shows during Pollstar’s latest chart year. Las Vegas was named the No. 1 Concert Market in the inaugural rankings with over $197 million in reported gross and one million reported tickets sold. Las Vegas is followed closely by L.A., New York, and The San Francisco Bay area. The Concert Market Rankings will be published each year at the conclusion of Pollstar’s chart year.

“APX and Concert Market Ranking demonstrate Pollstar’s mission to provide the very best data to empower strategic decisions for venues, talent buyers, artists, their representatives and others,” stated Ray Waddell, president of Media & Conferences for Oak View Group, Pollstar’s parent company. “We appreciate our partners and boxoffice reporters who understand that information is a powerful tool, and when more shows sell more tickets, the entire industry benefits.”

These two new initiatives coincide with Pollstar Live! 2022, the world’s largest gathering for the live music industry, which runs Mon., Feb. 7 through Wed., Feb. 9 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. The three days, beginning with Production Live! on Feb. 7, followed by Pollstar Live! on Feb. 8 and 9, will host influencers, visionaries, and thought leaders from all facets of live entertainment. Feb. 8 will also feature the 33rd Annual Pollstar Awards. Register here.

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