From today, you will notice that the ‘total minutes listened’ is now the primary metric displayed on a show, with play counts visible when you click on it. 

This change is based on a belief felt by the team, and communicated by many of you, that the length of time listeners engage with a show outweighs the importance of how many people press play. A long time spent listening to a show is a true sign of appreciation, a play could last 5 seconds. 

We tested this theory with a large group of you and the numbers, plus feedback, indicated that many of you agree. Within that test, listeners spent longer listening to shows that had ‘mins played’ displayed rather than plays, suggesting that with the new information, they trusted it was an engaging show. That sign of quality also reportedly helped their selection process when scrolling through the feed; 1 play might reflect a great show poorly, but a full 60 minutes listened demonstrates it’s worth checking out. 

Depth of engagement on a show has always been a part of the equation that determines chart positions, so another benefit of displaying this number is further clarification on why shows are charting. It’s worth pointing out that we’re not changing how the charts work; plays, favorites, reposts and shares to socials still contribute to a show’s chart position.

We are aware that in the past, plays have been subject to gamification from spam and fake accounts. Through this change, we aim to reward creators who have amassed dedicated fans that really listen to their shows. As more listeners become deeply engaged with mixes, creators should start to see higher listener minutes and a reduction in short plays.

We’re always looking for ways to help everyone in creating meaningful connections with their fellow music lovers. Reprioritising listener minutes over plays helps us and our creators keep track of how well we’re connecting them with real listeners. 

After positive feedback from the people involved in the test, we took the decision to make this available to everyone who uses Mixcloud on their Desktop and will continue to track your feedback. We hope this new approach helps you find and share quality shows with more ease.