Streaming Masters – Eric Clapton
The popularity of Eric Clapton was at an all-time high in the 90s, especially after the release of the mega successful Unplugged album in 1992.
We are now 30 years later though, how is he performing on streaming platforms, with his famous hits like Layla, Wonderful Tonight and Tears In Heaven, as well as with his deeper album cuts?
Eric Clapton streaming review – the method
Streaming is made up of audio and video streams. Our CSPC methodology now includes both to better reflect the real popularity of each track. The main source of data for each avenue is respectively Spotify and YouTube.
To factor in the growing impact of multiple Asian countries where these platforms aren’t always the go-to site for music streaming, more sources have been added.
In order to account for their real popularity in each relevant country, the below sources have been used along with the mentioned ratios that reflect the market share of each area.
Audio Streams
– South Korea: Genie streams * 2.20 (consistent with Gaon streaming numbers)
– Japan: AWA streams * 68 / 4 (AWA has 4% of the Japanese streaming market, and 32% are already considered through Spotify’s extrapolation)
– Arabic world: Anghami streams
– Sub-Saharan Africa: Boomplay + Audiomack streams
– Elsewhere: Spotify streams * 649 / 406 (649 million subscribers of global platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, etc. against 406 million from Spotify itself) + Genie streams * 2.20 (uses Genie rather than Spotify to extrapolate markets like Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam)
Video Streams
– China* : QQ video streams * 50 if the song is available for audio stream, QQ video streams * 5 elseway (scale built based on known figures for several major artists)
– Elsewhere : Youtube views increased by 10% to account for various local platforms
*since Chinese streaming platforms are mostly video streaming platforms, their streams are weighted on par with YouTube streams.
Audio Stream value – 1,500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream value – 6,750 views equal 1 album unit
Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = ( Spotify * 649/406 + Genie * 2.20 * 2 + AWA * 68 / 4 + Anghami + Boomplay + Audiomack ) / 1500 + ( QQ views* 50(or 5) + YouTube * 1.1 ) / 6750
Please be aware that when the artist is regarded as the lead act, he is rewarded with 100% of these units, while featured acts share among them a 50% piece of the totals.
Eric Clapton streaming review – the results
Total: 4,679,588 EAS
Eric Clapton most streamed tracks (EAS)
1. Layla [Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs] – 718,000
2. Tears in Heaven [Rush] – 480,000
3. Wonderful Tonight [Slowhand] – 465,000
4. Cocaine [Slowhand] – 418,000
5. My Sweet Lord [Features (Eric Clapton)] – 230,000
6. Change The World [Orphan (Eric Clapton)] – 175,000
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps [Features (Eric Clapton)] – 139,000
8. I Shot the Sheriff [461 Ocean Boulevard] – 119,000
9. Lay Down Sally [Slowhand] – 72,000
10. My Father’s Eyes [Pilgrim] – 71,000
Sources: Spotify, YouTube, AWA (app), QQ, Genie, Anghami, Audiomack, Boomplay.
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I never knew that My Sweet Lord and Guitar Gently Weeps are in no way Clapton’s songs. And Bangladesh does not belong to Clapton.
History is being rewritten.
Hi Mikko! We aren’t rewritting history, claiming that Clapton wasn’t there in the studio recording MSL or WMGGW or on stage during the Concert for Bangladesh, that would be rewritting history. As we introduced features with specific weightings now, it’s impossible to ignore his presence on these songs. It wouldn’t make sense to give FourFiveSeconds streams to Paul McCartney, and not WMGGW to Eric Clapton. As for Bangladesh, you need to check the weighting, only ‘his’ part is allocated to him, not the entire album. There too it’s down to the change of approach about features, once we assign units… Read more »
The difference with these rap features is that My Sweet Lord is credited to “George Harrison”, not “George Harrison feat. Eric Clapton”.
The idea that Clapton’s total should include him playing guitar on other artists’ songs but not him playing guitar with his actual bands (Cream…etc.) is a little strange, honestly…
I think it’s unfair that someone gets a credit for say, rapping a couple of lines in a song and doing nothing else on it, yet someone (a la Page, Clapton etc) who have played on a whole tracks, perhaps helped arrange it, came up with riffs, hooks, melodies etc gets nothing, just because it doesn’t say “featuring*.
No, the difference is that from the 70s to now, some lawsuits happened (George Harrison himself knew very well about it), so the music industry is very careful with it, crediting anyone who switched a light on in the studio to avoid being sued. Back then the situation was very, very different with contracts / credits awarding. We won’t be assigning sales differently to the same cases (like Clapton vs McCartney) just because the way credits are handled changed. And no, it’s not strange. The artist Eric Clapton features on My Sweet Lord. The person Eric Clapton belongs to Cream.… Read more »
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An answer saying “Fixed” or something would be nice? Jesus…
Not sure Jesus matters with this. Actually, I wasn’t sure the case was fixed, as I haven’t got the initial issue myself. You may want to come back on track as your childish attacks are getting tiresome. I’ve been answering to everything up to now, with data and always being far and nice, if the point for you is to continue your silly war I’ll simply start moving to spam this kind of comments.