For years, Music Connect has been an essential destination for curious, analytical, data-driven professionals from across the entertainment industry. We’ve already fielded questions about the new CONNECT, such as:
Music Connect is more than 10 years old; it now faces technical limitations.
We built CONNECT from scratch on an advanced cloud-first infrastructure with the capacity to connect more global data partners and return previously unimaginable insights. It looks better, runs faster and can accommodate more features and new types of data in the future.
More questions and answers are sorted by topic below. Jump to a section:
Troubleshooting and data issues
Future releases and product roadmap
Keep ‘em coming! We welcome questions from subscribers as we migrate accounts and make the transition to CONNECT. We’ll publish FAQs and update answers as we receive them.
We are currently migrating customers from Music Connect to CONNECT. Music Connect is still available for a limited time, but we will eventually sunset the legacy platform. Once this happens, no users will have access to Music Connect.
We’ll give your and your organization ample notice and training opportunities to learn the new platform. In the meantime, we encourage you to start exploring CONNECT now.
If your subscription qualifies for immediate CONNECT access, we will contact you via email. Otherwise, ask your organization or Luminate account representative for more information.
You can also request a demo here.
Some Music Connect subscribers will have access to both platforms during the transition period. New CONNECT subscribers will not have access to the legacy Music Connect.
Go to your Luminate account hub or use the URL app.luminatedata.com.
If you already subscribe to Music Connect or any other Luminate product, log in with your existing account credentials. You may need to delete saved password data and manually enter your login information.
For help with login or password issues, visit our Login Troubleshooting Guide.
CONNECT uses completely new software and data architecture. Saved reports, favorites and customization settings will not carry over from your Music Connect account.
However, you can run many of the same reports in CONNECT with Report Builder, which automatically saves all reports with the Management tool.
See above. Saved content and settings from your Music Connect account will not carry over to CONNECT.
Favorites are currently on our roadmap. We are also developing user customization options. Stay tuned for future CONNECT product releases and updates.
The Analysis feature now displays industry-level data in CONNECT.
Daily Trend has been replaced by Activity Over Time, a Dashboard pane that can display daily and weekly data within a customizable date range. You can generate an Activity Over Time visualization for any Activity Type + Breakout View within your desired date range.
CONNECT also supports Trend Reports.
CONNECT Dashboards are more powerful, with dynamic data visualizations and customization options that help you gain immediate insights without running a report.
Set your desired Activity View and Data Controls menu to visualize Activity Over Time, Activity by Location and other information in graph or grid form. Dashboard charts and graphs emphasize key metrics automatically based on your settings.
Yes. You can export most data visualizations in grid form. Click … to change any pane to a Grid View or export data in CSV/Excel format.
Yes. You can use Music Connect IDs to find matching database entries in CONNECT. Use ID Search to look up musical entities by ID; any valid legacy ID will pull up the relevant CONNECT Dashboard group.
Yes, though Ranked Lists are now called Ranking Reports. Create, manage and export Ranking Reports with our Report Builder.
You can create templates based on existing reports using the Clone a Report tool.
Yes. Market-level data is available for the U.S. and Canada.
Not all CONNECT subscriptions include market data. Check with your organization or Luminate account representative.
Yes. CONNECT data currently goes back to Week 1 of 2014, with more to come.
The Charts feature also displays Charts History/historical chart data.
Yes. The all-new Luminate API allows you to query the CONNECT database.
Luminate API documentation, endpoints and interactive resources can be found in the Luminate Developer Hub. Visit the Developer Hub or contact your account representative for help with API access.
Most data from Music Connect has been fully migrated to CONNECT. There are a few reasons that activity (streams, sales, charts, etc.) might look different between the platforms.
CONNECT uses some new (and improved, we feel) methods of grouping genres, artists, releases and songs. It also includes more breakouts and filters. In many cases, the data is the same, but categorizations and display options are different.
Where there are discrepancies, CONNECT is more likely to be accurate.
First, make sure you’re comparing the same week(s) of data. Music Connect defaults to the previous chart week; CONNECT defaults to the current week. You may also need to change Activity and Breakout Views (i.e. filter out Service Type:Programmed) to match Music Connect’s default view.
Read our Data discrepancies guide for more on data differences and how to address them.
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. Always copy-paste the URL of the CONNECT Dashboard in question.
Please be specific about data discrepancies. Include URLs, screenshots and descriptions. 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”).
No. We are no longer adding or restating data more than 8 weeks old in Music Connect.
Even in the new CONNECT, past Billboard charts cannot change. Weekly charts are locked upon publication (unless Billboard issues an official correction, which is rare). CONNECT will include access to historical charts created with the old Music Connect methodology.
Most discrepancies are too minor to affect overall data continuity.
CONNECT includes the same historical data as Music Connect, but some of it is organized and processed differently. If discrepancies cause trend breaks with data originally sourced from Music Connect, try retrieving the same data (same dates, same parameters, same filters) from CONNECT.
Yes. The core functions of Music Connect—plus new features—will be available in CONNECT. We’ll continue to add and enhance features during the transition and will notify subscribers as we release them. Stay tuned.
See Platform updates for recent releases.
Yes. Comparison is on our roadmap.
Yes. We are building a CONNECT report scheduler.
Yes. Luminate still provides and will continue to provide music performance data and rankings to Billboard. View chart eligibility rules and equivalent weighting information here.
Yes. Billboard charts (including Airplay charts) will be available in CONNECT, along with enhanced global charts, Luminate charts and more ways to view chart data. See the Charts guide for more.
Yes. Metro Radio Streaming reports are on our roadmap.
Yes, for certain account and subscription types.
Yes, for certain account and subscription types.
We release new and updated features as we develop them. Upcoming releases include more report options, more types of data and some tools that were unavailable in Music Connect. Still on the horizon:
A Musical Rights API for simplified claims submission
Viewable data from more countries
New activities, breakouts and filters
More streaming providers
Enhanced Report Builder options
Report scheduling
Portfolio (replacing Favorites)
More user settings and personalization options
Glossary: Acronyms, key terms and definitions
Client Support: Find answers and get the help you need
Troubleshooting guide: Quick fixes to common problems
How to CONNECT: All tutorials, walkthroughs and video demos