Data discrepancies: Identify and resolve differences between platforms

Data discrepancies: Identify and resolve differences between platforms

Legacy Music Connect users may notice that the old and new platforms report data differently. In some cases, consumption figures in CONNECT don’t match those in Music Connect. 


Why does CONNECT report different numbers?

All data from Music Connect has been migrated to CONNECT. But the new platform processes data differently. Small discrepancies between the platforms are normal. Even with “perfect” data, not all numbers will match.


CONNECT uses a new methodology for grouping musical entities and tracking consumption activity. It also includes more data from more sources. 



What about major discrepancies? 

Most can be resolved—or at least explained. In this article, we’ve prepared a three-part guide to confirming and resolving discrepancies between platforms. 

If the numbers are different: 

  1. Start with Initial troubleshooting to eliminate common issues

  2. Review Digging deeper to understand root causes

  3. Use Advanced troubleshooting to verify the discrepancy and isolate the source. 


If you can confirm a significant discrepancy, we want to know about it. Document your issue carefully, then follow the instructions at the bottom of this article. 





Back to Migrating from Music Connect 

Back to Getting Started 


Initial troubleshooting

Sometimes, “different numbers” come from different settings and view options. Use this checklist to verify that you’re looking at the same data in both places. 


Make sure you’re comparing the same week(s) of data. 

Music Connect defaults to the most recent chart week (last week). CONNECT defaults to the current week.


Check Activity Type and Breakout View.

You may need to change other Activity and Breakout Views in CONNECT to match Music Connect’s default view settings.


Check Location and Market options.

Verify that your location setting is the same on both platforms. Music Connect only offers United States, Canada and Global data; CONNECT has many more options. 


Set Location:United States and Markets:National in CONNECT before comparing platforms.


Adjust or reset Release Age filters in Analysis.

CONNECT’s Analysis feature enables custom Release Age filtering, which could affect comparison between Analysis and Industry Report on the two platforms. This may also affect Ranking Reports.


Filter out Programmed streams on Dashboards.

Music Connect Dashboards exclude Programmed streaming from the featured KPIs at the top of the page. Streaming totals in that section are for on-demand streams only; they don’t change even if you manually select Programmed streams from the options below. 


CONNECT Dashboards do include Programmed streaming activity by default. Exclude Programmed streams from a Dashboard to more closely match the KPIs in Music Connect.


Open the Data Controls menu and scroll to Activity Options > Streams. Under Service Type, deselect Programmed by un-checking the box.


Reset all filters. 

Open the CONNECT Data Controls menu and hit RESET SETTINGS / APPLY CHANGES. This clears any filters that might be affecting your analysis. 


Once you’ve reset your data controls, start over. Check dates, locations and activity filters one more time.


Eliminate unrelated technical problems.

Clearing your cache, updating your browser or relaunching CONNECT could fix a display error or fetch updated data. Review our general troubleshooting guide just in case.







Digging deeper

We built CONNECT to address Music Connect’s limitations, improve core processes and add functionality. CONNECT is capable of delivering a more accurate view of global music consumption. 


Refined methodology 

The CONNECT database uses more sophisticated methods of grouping artists, releases, songs and genres. It’s less prone to errors in naming, tagging and categorizing entities. Read about our approach in Methodology 101


New view options and filtering

Besides better data management on the back end, CONNECT presents a more layered and dynamic UI on the front end. Dashboards and Reports include more filters and customization options.


More data sources 

Finally, CONNECT ingests more data from more sources. We incorporate new providers, track country-level data from around the world and provide a more complete picture of product sales. 


Given the above, some data discrepancies are inevitable. Many are the direct result of new and improved methodology. 


See below for potential discrepancies and our explanations. 






Artist-level discrepancies 

The CONNECT database tracks more types of artist metadata, which helps us sort and group entries more accurately. As a result, combined activity figures for an artist might vary between platforms. 


  1. Collaborations are better attributed in CONNECT.

In Music Connect, collaborations between two or more artists aren’t attributed to either performer individually. CONNECT links collaborations to all credited artists on a song or release.  


  1. CONNECT disambiguates artists with the same name. 

Music Connect can’t successfully differentiate between artists with the same names. Sometimes, unrelated artists are merged together—and so is their aggregated consumption data. 

CONNECT uses Luminate IDs, ISNIs, and other identifiers to accurately identify and disambiguate artists. This prevents activity from being tracked under the wrong artist. 


  1. Some artists don’t have Dashboards yet. 

CONNECT generates Artist Dashboards when we receive complete artist metadata from our data partners. If we do not receive the minimum required amount of metadata, CONNECT may not create a Dashboard. This means that Artist Dashboards may not always appear right away, even for Songs and Releases that show activity. It also means fewer duplicates, fewer incomplete Dashboards and less noise.  

When needed, we manually create Dashboards. If you notice an artist with no Dashboard, you can submit an Artist Registration form. Be sure to fill out all required metadata fields, including genre and country of origin. (You can also report and correct Dashboard errors).






Data discrepancies 

If activity numbers look different—for an artist, an album, a song or within Analysis (f.k.a. Industry Report)—it could be due to one or more of the below.


  1. CONNECT standardizes time zones.

In CONNECT, time zone data is converted to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, EST +5). This may affect some global consumption data reported near a chart week cutoff. Chart weeks run from Friday-Friday, 12am UTC-12am UTC. 


  1. CONNECT rounds numbers differently.

Both platforms incorporate equivalent weighting and modeling. As part of that process, CONNECT rounds decimals and large numbers differently, creating discrepancies of a few units at a time. 

CONNECT defaults to daily data and rounds daily numbers before summing. Music Connect only rounds the weekly total.


  1. There are more providers in CONNECT.

Product Sales (U.S. and Canada) and Streaming (worldwide) totals may be higher in CONNECT. We’ve onboarded and ingested more providers in the new platform, some brand-new. CONNECT includes more international data sources as well as more directly-reported retail sales figures.


  1. The CONNECT database uses better grouping logic.  

Music Connect uses a less sophisticated methodology for grouping Recordings/ISRCs into Songs and Products/ICPNs into Releases and Release Groups. This means that some activity at the Song or Release Group level does not get tracked in Music Connect. 

CONNECT’s logic sorts and merges entities more accurately. This can create different combined activity totals for Songs and Release Groups. Scroll down to Advanced Troubleshooting for details.


  1. We perform stricter data integrity checks in CONNECT.

Sometimes, Music Connect ingests and reports data that CONNECT flags as invalid—nonexistent zip codes, for example. CONNECT performs a few automatic data integrity checks before publication. If needed, the platform holds back data until we can validate it, causing minor delays in reporting.


  1. We are no longer restating data in Music Connect.

We performed a handful of data restatements on both platforms during the migration period. At this point, we are no longer retroactively restating older data in the legacy platform. 

  1. Ex. New indie retail modeling for weeks 1-22 of 2024 was applied in CONNECT only. The same period in Music Connect still reports the non-modeled indie figures. 

  1. Music Connect releases incomplete daily data; CONNECT does not.

In Music Connect, a building week (now called the current week) incorporates partial daily data. The pop-up Data Availability Grid illustrates how various activities and providers show up piecemeal as the week progresses. 

We are deliberately halting this practice. 

CONNECT standardizes daily data releases. We don’t show daily figures for the current week until all (or most) activity on a date has been processed—usually within 2 days. Open the Time Frame menu to see the most recent date with published data.   


  1. CONNECT quarantines “future” sales.

Music Connect’s partial reporting (see above) includes future-dated physical product sales. This is a function of the industry-standard 3-day estimate between an online order and the item (theoretically) landing in a consumer’s hand. Online orders—mass market, D2C, e-commerce—could be placed on Monday and “counted” as consumption on Thursday. Future-dated sales numbers currently appear in Music Connect a few days early during the building week.  

CONNECT does not release partial data ahead of time. The new platform quarantines online ordering (and all other incoming activity) until we’re ready to publish a complete day of data. This also goes for preorders. We now publish future-dated sales activity on that calendar date, not before. 


  1. CONNECT does not finalize quarterly Analysis data until the next quarter ends.

Music Connect’s Industry Report displays the most recent week of data. We don’t reprocess or add to an Industry Report later, even if we receive new data for past weeks. As a result, Industry Report can only provide a point-in-time analysis. Here’s what the data looked like on that day—even if it turned out to be incorrect later. 

CONNECT’s Analysis feature offers many more Time Frame options, including custom views of multiple weeks at once. 

In addition, CONNECT does not close the preceding quarter of Analysis data until the next quarter. We reprocess and refresh data for up to (almost) 2 quarters at a time. This means that 1) CONNECT’s Analysis is more accurate at any given time, but also 2) data pulled from the last 6 months might appear to be in flux, especially when viewing large quarterly totals with Analysis.  


  1. CONNECT can account for recordings with no ISRC.

Music Connect cannot track activity for recordings with no ISRC code. (Ideally, all recordings in our database have ISRCs assigned, but that’s not always the case). This means that some activity is not captured at the Recording or Song level in the legacy platform. Without ISRCs, some streams and sales aren’t counted on the charts, in Market Share or anywhere else. 

In CONNECT, as long as there’s an identifier, we can usually map a Recording to the correct Song and capture activity. For instance, we use Anghami IDs and other regional platform codes to help us group certain recordings.

This issue is more common in South Korea and on all Billboard Arabia charts. 


  1. Some Equivalents have been renamed or redefined. 

Music Connect’s Albums w/TEA w/SEA On-Demand metric is now Album Equivalent. We’ve also introduced a new metric, Stream Equivalent, to better capture global consumption patterns. You may need to adjust Music Connect’s view options to compare equivalents between platforms. 

See details about Album and Stream Equivalents here.  


12.    Billboard and Luminate charts are slightly different. 

In some countries, Billboard charts are published by a local Billboard licensee, who may incorporate additional data and apply different methodology. When this happens, we generate a Luminate version of that chart in CONNECT using our Stream Equivalent ratios. (See Charts FAQ).

Some Luminate charts are near-exact proxies for Billboard charts, but there may be differences due to our more refined genre classification and other factors. Most Luminate charts display the same rankings as their Billboard counterparts.


13.    Airplay Ranking Reports exclude U.S./Canada crossover activity. 

All Airplay activity is attached to an originating radio station. We then attribute Airplay consumption to a market in the U.S. or Canada based on the station’s ZIP code.

But radio broadcasts cross national borders: listeners in Buffalo can hear radio stations from the greater Toronto area and vice versa. To account for this on the Airplay charts, several U.S. and Canada format panels include stations from both countries. The Airplay format charts published by Billboard include cross-border activity from these stations. 

In CONNECT, however, Dashboards and Reports only compile data for one country at a time, which excludes a handful of cross-border stations from Airplay totals. If you run an Airplay Ranking Report for a particular format, Spins and Audience figures will be lower than the ones used in Billboard Airplay charts, which include all stations in their respective format panels. 

Use Dashboards to see the remainder of Airplay consumption, if desired. Go to Activity by Location to see Airplay figures for both countries, including data from “the other side”—the stations physically located across the border that are still tracked with that country’s Airplay activity.







Advanced troubleshooting

If you still see a data mismatch that can’t be explained by the above, follow these steps to narrow down the problem and isolate the specific discrepancy.


Check activity data at the Product and Recording level.

Some discrepancies stem from platform grouping logic that impacts tracking at the Release Group (Album) and Song level. CONNECT rolls up Products/ICPNs into Releases and Releases into Release Groups; Recordings/ISRCs are grouped into Songs.

Go to a Release Group, Release or Song Dashboard to investigate Products and Recordings.

  • On a Release Group Dashboard, scroll to Releases & Songs > RELEASES tab. Expand titles to see products listed by ICPN. Click any title to visit its Release Dashboard.

  • On a Release Dashboard, scroll to Products & Songs > PRODUCTS tab. Products (called barcodes or UPCs in Music Connect) are listed by ICPN. Click an ICPN to visit its Product Dashboard. 

  • On a Song Dashboard, scroll to Recordings. Recordings are listed by ISRC. Click any ISRC to visit its Recording Dashboard. 

Expand grids and edit columns to see activity for individual ICPNs and ISRCs. 



Use Breakout Views, filters and Stacked Grids for more precise analysis. 

Use the Breakout View dropdown or open Data Controls to segment or filter activity on a Dashboard. These options can add columns to your Releases, Products or Recordings grids (see above) and make it easier to find specific data discrepancies.

            Choose Stacked Grids to help pinpoint data within an activity and breakout. 


Export grid views of ICPN and ISRC data.

Follow the above steps to create a detailed view of ICPN or ISRC activity from a Dashboard. Then export your grid(s) for an easier apples-to-apples comparison with Music Connect data. 


Click to download any Dashboard grid view in CSV or Excel format. 



Isolate lists of ICPNs (barcodes) and ISRCs.

Music Connect Dashboards list Products by barcode/ICPN and Recordings by ISRC. Once you’ve exported a Product or Recording Grid View in CONNECT (see above), you can compare lists of ICPNs and ISRCs. Check:

  1. Overall, am I looking at the same lists of ISRCs and ICPNs?

  2. Does this CONNECT Release Group cover every Release and Product?

    1. All editions and formats (Releases)?

    2. All barcodes (Products)?

  3. Does this CONNECT Product Dashboard capture all activity for this barcode/ICPN?

  4. Does this CONNECT Song Dashboard include every ISRC? 

  5. Does the Recording Dashboard capture all activity for this ISRC?

  6. Are any ICPNs or ISRCs from Music Connect not being tracked in CONNECT? 

  7. Are Songs and Releases tracked on the correct Artist Dashboards? 

  8. Is this artist merged or duplicated on either platform?



Perform an ID Search in CONNECT.

Search by ID in CONNECT to verify that an ISRC or ICPN is being tracked. If we have that ID in our database, Search will point you to the Song or Release Group Dashboard for that item. 

Go to the Dashboard, then scroll down to find the ID in Releases & Songs or Recordings.



Change genre and/or chart owner to Billboard.

Music Connect classifies music by Billboard genre only. CONNECT adds Luminate genres as a second option. Read about the two genre sets here


Music Connect Trend Reports allow for genre filtering. If you’re comparing Trend Report data between platforms, be sure to set Genre Database:Billboard in CONNECT’s Report Builder. This might reclassify some entities and change activity figures at the genre level. 


CONNECT Analysis data may also be affected by genre filters.







Next steps: Report a discrepancy 

Even controlling for the above, Music Connect and CONNECT might show different data during the migration period.

Report data issues and potential bugs by submitting a Help ticket or emailing help@luminatedata.com.

Please be specific about data discrepancies. Call out the figures you want to check (ex. “Album sales for Weeks 12-48 of 2024 are 110,000 in Music Connect and 150,000 in CONNECT”). Always copy-paste Dashboard URLs in your description. Attach screenshots and other relevant files. 



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