Editorial
ChartFM's editorial holds the longest pieces on the site: guides to how the platform works, genre explainers, analysis of the week's charts and opinion about listening habits.
Everything is written to be read end to end. Each piece has subheadings and, where it makes sense, a frequently asked questions section at the bottom.
21 pieces in this category
Guides and opinion
The Level on your profile is a reading of the XP your account has piled up since you joined. It is not currency, it is never spent, and it grants no advantage. This piece explains what pays XP, how much each action is worth, and why the curve gets steeper after Level 25.
By Bruno · 5 min read
Guides and opinion
Genre charts are not separate votes. They are filters applied to the same charts that form the Global 100, and what decides whether a song enters is its tag.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Remasters, single versions, features inside the title. Every music platform fights the same problem, and ChartFM's answer contains a deliberate choice worth explaining.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
There is no vote for artists on ChartFM. The artist ranking is derived from the songs, and two rules explain almost every position that looks odd.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
It is the slowest part of ChartFM, and deliberately so. One record per round, heard by the community at the same time, and only then discussed.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
If you feel like you always hear the same thing even with the whole world available, the problem is probably not a lack of options. It is the shape of the recommendation.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Push is ChartFM's discovery contest. The mechanic is easy to describe, but the scoring formula has a consequence that changes how it pays to vote.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Airplay and Albums count what played, not what was picked. Connecting a Last.fm account enters you automatically, and a cap keeps one person on loop from deciding the top.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Guides and opinion
You can keep two charts, and the second can be daily. The cadence changes what each position is worth, how movement is calculated and what the chart can show.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Guides and opinion
A community on ChartFM is not just a feed with a name. It runs its own weekly chart, fed by its members' charts, and the owner can rewrite almost all of that chart's rules.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Guides and opinion
Looking at the thousands of charts already published on ChartFM, the sizes cluster around very few numbers. The distribution says something about how people organise their own taste.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
A chart published after the cutoff does not enter that week. And the published ranking is not recalculated later, which is the only way peaks and weeks on top mean anything.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Guides and opinion
Looking at the album scores published on the site, the overwhelming majority sit above 70. Anything below 50 is rare. That does not mean the community is too generous.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
The playlist solved the problem of finding good music and created another one: almost nobody plays a record from start to finish. It is worth understanding what drops out of that trade.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
You do not have to log anything. The editions of your chart are added up into tables showing who you played most, what stayed longest and what has led.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Charts measure loose songs. CriticsFM exists for the rest: scoring a record, writing about it and following what the community is playing all the way through.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Guides and opinion
When someone signs up to ChartFM, they pick the genres they listen to. Adding those choices up draws a map of the community's taste, and it holds a few surprises.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Every chart shows more than the current position. Next to each song sit numbers that describe its trajectory, and that is where reading a chart gets interesting.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Building a chart means picking the songs that defined your week and putting them in order. It sounds simple, and it is, but a few decisions make the result far more interesting to read and to compare later.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
The Cup is the most playful part of the site. The mechanic is an artist tournament, but the way the result is presented is what makes it work.
By Bruno · 4 min read
Guides and opinion
Every published chart hands out points that feed the Global 100. Understanding the curve explains how a song can appear on few charts and still lead.
By Bruno · 3 min read
Want to understand the platform's rules before diving into the articles? Start with the Guides the week's Global 100 or the Frequently asked questions.