The November 2024 Chart
The top ten tracks for November 2024 from Wud Records have been published in a new compilation at SoundCloud.
However… there is a certain proviso to all of this. In much the same way as all social media platforms become ever more strangled under ever tighter controls, so too does the data from streaming services seem more comprised than in the past. However, we believe that, aside from the lateness of the stats coming from some of our distribution services, the quality of the data has improved recently.
We shall elaborate further with regard to each platform where our music is represented.
Bandcamp Is the Best Platform for Artists
If you are not yet a member of Bandcamp, we strongly suggest you sign up. Do it now! It’s free to join.
For any independent artist or label wanting to sell music or merch, there is no better place on the web to do so. If you don’t believe us, check out any search engine to see what other artists have to say. Bandcamp are simply Numero Uno. Finito!
Consider also this. There is always a danger that streaming services might remove music or artists from their platform (e.g. the recent dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok), or the platform may even cease to exist altogether. Remember Napster, VitaminIC, MySpace, FriendsReunited?
When you subscribe to a music streaming platform, you don’t actually *own* any of the music. You’re just renting a bit of bandwidth on their distribution service, and most of the rent revenue you are paying goes to big corporations rather than the artists you love. It’s a terrible business model, both for artists and fans alike.
To avoid having the soundtracks to your life erased, we strongly recommend buying physical media and downloads so you can listen to your favourite songs whenever you wish. You know it makes sense!
Whilst several music platforms offer music downloads, they all charge a lot more and take a much bigger percentage of that higher price then Bandcamp does.
This means that you pay more, the band receives less, and a big greedy corporation takes a big old chunk of the money you paid to support the artist all for itself, just because it can. It’s a lose-lose situation, unless you happen to be a big greedy corporation who can rip people off however the fancy takes them.
Buying music from Bandcamp will cost you less and support the artist more. About 80% to 85% of what you spend at Bandcamp goes directly to the artist or their label, and is paid daily.
So it’s always a good idea to download from Bandcamp whenever possible, as they are the best site for supporting artists.
You can even pay more than the asking price for music on Bandcamp if you wish to add a little extra support for the artist.
There is also a Community feature at Bandcamp, and you can join ours by clicking here.
We believe that the stats we see from Bandcamp are perfectly accurate’. Yay!
HearThis
We are considering moving all of our SoundCloud music to HearThis because we rather like the platform, even though it is less than 5% of the size of SoundCloud. Their MD has promised us *personally* that his company will not ride roughshod over its userbase without any warning at all in attempts to cut costs, and that is rather appealing.
More news on this will follow in the future.
We’ve had plenty of issues and arguments with SoundCloud over many years, such as our disabled messaging for allegedly ‘spamming’ other artists there, who we dared try to inform about being included in a Musical Discoveries compilation. It would have probably been fine if we’d supported a bunch of major hiphop stars, as that is what SC loves best, instead of the multitude of curious and largely undiscovered wonders we try to support.
Much of our material at HearThis consists of either Archive tracks or oddities. Streams there are not particularly significant at present, although we do include them in the final analysis.
SoundCloud
A few months ago, SoundCloud decided, in their seemingly infinite wisdom, to downgrade their excellent ‘Stats’ for premium users (such as ourselves) to something that was completely and unbelievably dreadful that they call ‘Insights’, which are surprisingly uninsightful despite the profoundly misleading nomenclature.
Somebody at the company thought it would be a good idea to take a system that worked spectacularly well in real time, and replace it with another that is riddled with inconsistancies and errors. One can even observe the data changing right before one’s eyes! Even some of the most basic functions, such as choosing particular date ranges, no longer works properly. Which idiot thought this was a good idea? In our organisation such sabotage wouild mean instant dismissal. “Put your keys on the table and close the door behind you.”
Whilst we still do not fully trust the information we get from SoundCloud, there has been a significant improvement in data quality recently. Perhaps one day the new ‘Insights’ system will even be as good as their ‘Stats’ system was before they fiddled with it, but we shall have to wait and see.
Shitify
The data from the Wud Records Snotify for Artists pages covers everybody at that platform on our label. We also use the Snortify data from our distributors CD Baby and Soundrop.
Truth be told, we dislike spotify rather intensely right now. Not only are they tardy regarding supplying their stats, they have also implemented their most hideously egregious policy so far from 1st January 2024.
Spotify have chosen to take all of the revenue generated by any track having under 1000 streams and redistribute that revenue to the people who have the most streams, such as drake, kanye, taylor and so on.
Read about it here: https://blog.discmakers.com/2023/11/spotify-royalty-theft/
This isn’t just theft, it’s an absolute disgrace. Whoever thought this up should be ashamed of themselves and publicly rogered with a wire brush. Size four.
As such, we are considering boycotting spotify entirely. More news on this to come at the end of 2024.
Should our music achieve more than 1000 streams per track, which is highly likely over the course of a whole year, that means we are in effect stealing somebody else’s royalties when we are paid.
Just because a creative person achieves under 1000 streams for a song doesn’t mean we have the right to take their royalties. They probably worked just as hard as we did to make and release their music. They are no less deserving of their royalties than anybody else.
The whole thing is mucky and bad and makes us feel dirty for being paid not just our own royalties, but those of people who were unable to make the cut. This is just so wrong. It’s a proper mess.
Not only that, two of our songs have had “excessive” plays. This excess has resulted in punitive measures, which we are still protesting. It seems ridiculous, but that is what has happened.
One such song, Future Sadness Past from Dark Company‘s Signmaker album, has been removed from spotify completely. In order to punish us for having our song played “excessively”, the rest of the Signmaker album has also been removed from spotify.
The other missing track is Welcome to the Family by Flicker, from At Least 1000 Words. This track seems to have been hidden from the public.
Our distributors have so far declined to comment or reply to our emails regarding these issues. As such, we are considering abandoning spotify entirely at the end of the year. They are, after all, extremely shabby corporate scumbags, and have treated our label with contempt. Perhaps because we have spoken out against their egregious policies repeatedly.
Deezer, Tidal, YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, etc.
We are now using data from our distributors for streams on platforms such as YouTube, Deezer and so on when reckoning the monthly charts. Unfortunately the data arrives several days late, so we only use it to extrapolate general trends.
The data for these services filters through to us via our distributors, although we are not very trusting of it. At best we can get a general feel of what is going on across all of the streaming services this way.
In Conclusion…
Previously the algorithm we used gave greatest weight to downloads and reposts, then likes and comments (active engagement) over plays (passive engagement).
If somebody actually pays to download something, they must have liked it! Our artists and ourselves are always very grateful to our supporters in this respect. It genuinely helps keep the fires burning and the wheels turning.
When somebody reposts a track, that gives it the opportunity to be heard by a potential new fan. This is always a tremendous help for creative souls. It enables that track to be discovered and enjoyed by the community of the person doing the sharing, which can generate new fans.
A ‘like’ is nice, but reposts actually helps the artist reach a bigger audience. You create the chance for that to happen. Recommending a song costs you nothing at all and can be a massive help for an independent artist. Why not do it now?
How Did We Calculate The November 2024 Chart?
The latest system is based upon some of the general tendencies and trends that have occured over the last calender month, as well as specifics where they are available. These have been amalgamated together to make the new Top Ten. Thank goodness for the Statistics module at university!
We have combined the stats from the general trends and tendencies from all of the services mentioned above. Each platform is represented and results from each are weighted and added together. Archive tracks and bonus tracks are ignored. The feedback from people who clearly didn’t listen to the music is now rendered insignificant.
Only you, the listener, can influence our December 2024 chart. So if there is a song you particularly like, keep playing it! Leave a comment, repost it, share it to your social media feeds! Download it from our Bandcamp! Add it to a playlist! It absolutely can make a difference.
Thanks For All Your Help!
Massive thanks go out to everybody who helped to support all of us during November 2024 by listening to, commenting on and reposting our bands’ tracks on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and elsewhere.
All the wonderful fans of our bands who supported us with downloads from Bandcamp are especially appreciated. You genuinely help us keep the fires burning and collectively we thank you for that most graciously. May you be blessed by the gods of rock n roll! :)
We would also like to say a special thank you to all the splendid people on Twitter and BlueSky who have been enjoying and reposting our tracks to their followers. All the support and positive feedback has been incredibly heartwarming for us all. It makes our endeavours here feel worthwhile.
Thank you very much to everyone who bought items from our merch store. Anyone who shares a photo of themselves with their Wud item on social media will receive an extra goody from ourselves once we have seen it and shared the photo on to our community as well.
If you buy something cool from the Flicker merch store, or the Dark Company merch store, we shall also send you an extra goody if you show us a photo of yourself (or friend, or environment) on social media with the item you purchased.
Last and by no means least, we would like to say thank you very much to all of the splendid people who have been buying us coffees at BuyMeACoffee. It’s very kind of you to help us out. All of these things absolutely contribute to ourselves being able to keep going, and spend more time making beautiful music for you to enjoy. It is truly appreciated very much indeed.
Who’s In The November 2024 Top Ten?
Dark Company
Congratulations to Dark Company! They’ve had a very good month across all of the platforms we use, ending with them achieving two songs in our newest monthly chart.
Straight in at number one is a new entry from Dark Company. This is a rather wonderful and catchy song called Decide to Ride, which may end up on the FUBAR CD as it is not especially rocky.
Decide to Ride is an earworm that you may find yourself singing after you’ve heard the chorus. The bouncy piano and subtley complex bass parts are an absolute delight. Josh plays a bit of what he calls “rhythm trumpet”, as well as wringing a few silvery notes through the mute at the end.
Down from number one to number two this month is Suns Set, the first song to be released from the band’s A for Acronym album. Suns Set is actually the very last song on the first of the three CDs that will make up the full album.
Although Suns Set is still little more than a demo, it is a beautiful song. The feel is classic rock, perhaps a little 80s in style, and like many of Pete’s lyrics, turned out to be rather prophetic.
Some of the lead guitar was recorded as a prompt for Pete to sing the vocal to, as he had forgotten the melody he originally created when we came to record his voice. We all rather liked it and it has been kept in some places.
A for Acronym is a triple album that cosists of three separate parts. SNAFU is a loosely ‘rock’ colllection of songs, VSF is a loosely ‘reggae’ collection of songs, and FUBAR is a collection of songs that don’t quite belong in either of the other two categories.
More A for Acronym songs will be released soon. There is also a new page among Dark Company’s pages at this website for the A for Acronym: SNAFU album, which you can visit by clicking here.
Flicker
Flicker had a good month across all platforms but only achieved one entry on the new Wud Records chart. Welcome to the Family is a re-entry at number three and is a wonderful latin-jazz-rock-fusion instrumental.
It builds from its acoustic guitar beginings to a heady climax of guitar feedback and noise. There is a lovely bass solo from Dave, who also plays all the keyboard parts with outstanding aplomb and sensitivity.
Welcome to the Family was inspired by The Godfather by Mario Puzo and a new chord from a Portuguese sea shanty. It is one of Flicker‘s most enduring and popular releases and recently passed a streaming milestone.
Wud
Wud (the band) enjoyed a splendid month in November 2024. If our charts stretched to 20 songs instead of ten, then all four tracks from Wud‘s 1985 Daylight Demo would have been included. As it was, there were only two that enjoyed top ten exposure.
The first to appear is a new entry at number four, Indian Summer. We were amazed that this song had never managed to enter the top ten before, despite its enduring popularity and unique charm.
It was probably helped into our newest chart by being rediscovered by an old fan, who wanted to know how to play it. George decided to make a “How to play…” video at YouTube.
As it happens, he actually played the song wrong! We believe he may make a corrective video soon. More news on this will follow subsequently.
Indian Summer is a beautiful song, with lyrics by Ken and guitar by George – and a strange fellow called Paul Kay, who nobody has heard of for about 40 years by now. Some of the chords are rather esoteric, especially the Bb-5 add 9, which is an absolute beauty. The song is about an asian lady that Ken used to know in Richmond before he moved to Devon, rather than warm weather in the autumn.
There is also a version of Indian Summer by Laughing Sun, which might have been the very last recording we ever made with Ken. This version features some compelling and charming lead guitar at the end from Pok.
A re-entry at number seven is That’s No Way to Pay a Bodyguard, which has been a tremendously popular song for many years. The guitar was composed in Kingskerswell at the house of a friend of George’s father, using an amazing full scale organ and a Fender Stratocaster, one rainy afternoon.
The lyrics for the song came later, upon returning to Exeter. Several lines of words concerning sheep and the merits of grass were subsequently discarded and the redundant vocal melody was used as a definitive guitar part.
That’s No Way to Pay a Bodyguard was one of Wud‘s signature songs. Amazingly, it has not hit the top ten of our charts since January 2020, but it has certainly been in and around the top twenty many times since then. For the first few months after joining the platform, it was our most streamed song on SoundCloud, after surprising us all by enjoying a huge spike of popularity in Norway.
Pok the Bard
We have started to release Pok‘s Anthology album’s tracks to SoundCloud (as mentioned in this News post) and doing so has made a big impact. Pok has claimed many of the top spots recently, and now one on our new chart.
Down from number two to number five, is Pok’s newest release, Don’t Let It Pass You By. This is such a wonderful cheerful song with a strong positive message. It can bring a smile to the lips of the glummest and most grumpulated miseryguts you know. It would probably help if they like rock music, especially of the hard, classic, blues, country or psychedelic varieties.
Don’t Let It Pass You By may start with a gentle introduction in A major, but then it really kicks in hard when the song proper begins and the key changes to E major. There is plenty of Ibanez Roadstar guitar goodness across the mix, as well as some organ and synth, not to mention the tastiest rhythm section on the planet right now in Maxx and Sven to invigorate your dancing shoes.
Don’t Let It Pass You By is a very historic song, going right back to the early days of Laughing Sun in 1985.
We are very pleased with the latest version of Don’t Let It Pass You By by Pok. There is so much to love about this we recommend you just listen to it yourself, which you can do by clicking here.
The Bastard Sons of Dennis
The Bastard Sons of Dennis enjoyed a good month on the chart in November 2024, claiming three of the ten possible positions. All three songs come from their fabulous Cosy Lube Turtle album of Blue Oyster Cult covers.
Since the studio upgrade early last year, we have been working on improving the sound quality of everything we released in the last few years. Fans of our gruesome twosome can expect some exciting news regarding this album fairly soon. We are waiting on just a single file before making a big announcement.
A progtastic full-band mini-album by the dynamic duo is also in the early stages of finalisation.
Sadly we tend to feel that further recordings of their many remaining Blue Oyster Cult covers seems an unlikely prospect. This is mostly due to “discommunication, disorganisation and general untogetherness”, as the legend who is Paul Bateman once said of them when they were in Rough Terrain.
Then Came the Last Days of May is a climber, up to six from number seven. This beautiful song tells a true story of how three university friends of Blue Öyster Cult’s guitarist, Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser, were brutally murdered in a drug deal that went horribly and tragically wrong. The version by our dynamic duo adds a twist to the versions heard on Blue Öyster Cult’s eponymous studio album and the live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees album from 1975.
Derek would sing “Now and then a duck” instead of “truck”, which caused fans of the duo to bring toy ducks with them along to live performances. Chuck’s solo is largely based on the live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees version, and his little whistle at the end (which didn’t always come out quite right in a live show) came from the character Tom Good in the uk tv sitcom The Good Life.
After one month just outside the top ten, this month‘s number eight song is a re-entry. Astronomy, is a profoundly beautiful and haunting creation. It was composed by the Bouchard brothers, Joe and Albert, and Sandy Pearlman. It is the final track of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1974 Secret Treaties album, and an absolute masterpiece of progressive rock composition.
The version of Astronomy by The Bastard Sons of Dennis is more produced than their live performances. They would often end a show with Astronomy, introducing it as a song that was famously covered by Metallica. “We wrote it, of course; ahem, cough…” Chuck would quip.
Before the Kiss a Redcap is a re-entry at number nine and the third Cosy Lube Turtle song on the new chart. It is the song that The Bastard Sons of Dennis performed live the most frequently. It would often pique the curiosity and lure unsuspecting bar patrons to where the live music was being performed so they could see for themselves what was going on. It was a very popular and fun live song, and quite often a set opener.
Before the Kiss a Redcap is the story of some events that took place at Conry’s Bar, on The Turnpike in New York. It is the fifth song on the eponymously titled Blue Öyster Cult album, released in 1972. Its lyrics were allegedly inspired by a real event witnessed by Sandy Pearlman, in which a biker offered him a barbiturate to be taken via a kiss.
The Subterraineans
The Subterraineans have a single entry in our chart this month. Short and Sweet is an amazing, beautiful, wonderful, epic classic rock song that falls from number three to number ten.
A massive favourite for many years, Short and Sweet used to profoundly affect people listening to it whenever The Subterraineans played this song live. Like many of Dean’s songs, it is a rather poignant prophetic prediction of Dean’s ultimate fate and how he felt about his struggles.
Short and Sweet is well over eight minutes long and feels much shorter somehow. Jerry’s bass sounds a bit uncertain at the start, but he always played it that way so he must have had some idea what he was doing!
Dean tragically committed suicide in 1994 by jumping from the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. He was just 29 years old. He received absolutely no professional help from the uk medical or social professions. With a little professional help he would surely still be here with us today. He was a unique and charming character and his passing was a great loss to the world.
As such, we have decided to donate all proceeds of the sale of this EP and its individual tracks, beyond the first euro, to The Samaritans. They do amazing and difficult work, trying to prevent more people jumping to their deaths from that notorious bridge.
* None of our other acts made it onto the November 2024 chart. *
Listening Options
If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in November 2024, as played, liked, commented upon and reposted by listeners, please click here.
If you prefer to listen right here at the Wud Records website, you will find that it is the new default music player. You will find it on all non band-specific pages at the site, including our Links collection and homepage.
The November 2024 chart has its very own dedicated page among the charts pages of this website. You can listen to the new compilation on its page by clicking here.
Each of the previous charts also has its own page in the charts section of this website. If you would like to see all our old charts, or for any previous month you are especially interested in, all of them can be accessed easily by clicking here.
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