The great streaming illusion

I think purchasing a physical product these days indicates a qualitatively different form of appreciation for an artist. It doesn't surprise me that an act like Glass Animals, that makes very trendy, easy-to-listen-to indie pop, would attract more casual listeners (reflected in their higher listener count) and fewer devoted fans (reflected in their lower physical sales); while arena-sized rock bands like Vampire Weekend or Greta Van Fleet would have fewer casual listeners and more devoted fans.

I'm not sure I'd really regard first week physical sales as the best metric in 2024 when many people don't purchase physical media anymore. I think it's going to skew your data in favor of what music is popular with people who are more likely to purchase physical media. There's going to be outliers, like, I'm not sure people buying Taylor Swift on vinyl are likely to buy much other physical media. Vampire Weekend has always had a lot of hipster draw, I'd think their listeners are probably more likely to buy more physical media overall.

I think you kind of just picked a strange example to make your point.

Glass Animals is a third-tier group in popularity (nothing wrong with that!) that happened to end up with a huge smash song at one point not too long ago.

This has happened throughout history. Here are some other examples. Glen Campbell in the 1970s. A-ha in the 1980s. The Goo Goo Dolls in the 1990s. Kings of Leon in the 2000s. Hozier in the 2010s (prior to him having another hit this year).

Many songs on the same album as Heat Waves have less than 50 million streams. They clearly don't have huge popularity outside that 1 song, but clearly have some.

Streaming numbers are an illusion if you don't remove the outliers. Heat Waves/Glass Animals...that's an outlier.

It takes a LOT of work to quantify the artist's level of success, and then EVEN MORE effort to convince your advertisers/investors, your industry and your listeners that this is the case.

How many artists in 2024 have higher first week sales than Kris Allen's first album? (80K) Do you even remember him? :)

glass animals' poor sales isn't much of a surprise. they're a modern one-hit-wonder, with a singular song that had gained popularity in fan circles tending towards younger teenagers (minecraft youtuber fans). they, as another commenter has mentioned, tend to be casual listeners, and a more limited spending power. moreover, younger audiences rarely tend to buy albums, and mostly consume music solely via online platforms. glass animals' disparity in streaming vs sales number, i would say, accurately captures the characteristics of their "listener" demographics. while some more "musically established" acts such as lcd soundsystem focus on an whole-of-album approach to their releases, modern acts like glass animals tend to focus on promoting and crafting trendy album singles. thus, it really is no surprise that very little people are actually interested enough to buy a whole album from them. i don't think that there is an illusion at play here- what we're actually seeing is just a shift in consumer habits and the differences between acts' approaches to their music, and promotional strategies.

"Basically the music landscape today is highly unique and takes a little more work to quantify bands level of success"

I mean, that would be great if we were listening to music based on weather or not they are successful, right?

But we aren't, hopefully. 

We are listening to music based on the fact that they dont suck. 

Example:

Taylor Swift: 116 mil listeners. But not really that great, right? Right. 

Sacramentum: Just under 6000 listeners. But they kick ass don't they? Yeah you bet your sisters *** they do! I mean why the would that even be under discussion.