{"id":9773,"slug":"african-chart-returning-records-scope-16aug-10nov-2026","title":"Scope of the desk’s African daily-chart collection used to measure returning records, 16 August to 10 November 2026","source":"This desk's own afw_chart_snapshot and afw_chart_entry collection of published daily African charts","source_url":"","source_type":"computed","method":"Population is every row the desk collected from a published daily African chart on seven fixed-length feeds between 2026-08-16 and 2026-11-10: Apple Music songs, albums and music videos, Deezer songs, Shazam songs, Spotify songs and YouTube songs, across 42 African markets, 85 chart dates carrying a movement flag. Two feeds held by the desk are excluded and the exclusions matter: afw\/composite is built from the other feeds and would double count, and itunes\/songs publishes a chart whose length varies between 47 and 99 slots, so a record's absence there cannot be distinguished from the chart being shorter that day. The seven feeds retained publish a fixed slot count (20, 99 to 100, or 200) and are near-complete in collection, so absence from a collected chart is a real absence. A row is counted as a new-entry flag where the collector recorded status 'new', meaning the record was not present in the immediately preceding collected snapshot of that same market and feed. Each new-entry flag is then classed as a reappearance if that same record identifier had already been observed on that same market and feed on an earlier date in the window, and as first-time if it had not. The first collected date for each chart carries no movement flag, because there is no prior snapshot to compare against, which is why 85 dates carry flags and 86 were collected. Reappearance counts are a lower bound and first-time counts an upper bound: a record that charted before 2026-08-16 and returned during the window is counted as first-time, because the desk has no observation of its earlier run. Records are matched on the feed's own stable record identifier, not on title text. reappear_pct and contiguous_pct are computed in this table from the integer counts in the same row, not by dividing rounded percentages. contiguous_pct is the share of that feed's returns where the preceding collected snapshot of the same chart was the previous calendar day, so the record's absence and return happened inside one day of real chart movement and cannot be attributed to a gap in collection. The iTunes slot-count rows describe one of the two excluded feeds and are the reason for excluding it. Share rows are computed from the integer counts in this same table. The retained feeds publish fixed slot counts: 20 for YouTube, 99 to 100 for Apple Music and Deezer, and 200 for Spotify and Shazam. The majority and below-half rows count markets and feeds against a 50 per cent threshold on their own reappear_pct, and are included because the pooled finding is not exhaustive: it does not hold in every market or on every feed.","unit":"","license":"Afrobeats Wire's compilation and analysis are licensed CC BY 4.0. Rights in the underlying source data remain with the source named above.","confidence":"high","retrieved":"2026-11-10 14:04:47","n":23,"first_party":0,"columns":[{"key":"measure","label":"Measure","type":"text"},{"key":"value","label":"Value","type":"number"}],"rows":[{"measure":"African markets covered","value":42},{"measure":"Chart feeds in the desk's daily collection","value":9},{"measure":"Chart feeds retained for this measurement","value":7},{"measure":"Chart feeds excluded (composite, variable-length)","value":2},{"measure":"Shortest iTunes chart collected, slots","value":47},{"measure":"Longest iTunes chart collected, slots","value":99},{"measure":"Smallest retained chart, published slots","value":20},{"measure":"Largest retained chart, published slots","value":200},{"measure":"Chart dates collected","value":86},{"measure":"Chart dates carrying a movement flag","value":85},{"measure":"New-entry flags","value":337686},{"measure":"Flags that are records returning to the same chart","value":191632},{"measure":"Flags that are first-time on that chart","value":146054},{"measure":"Returning as a share of all new-entry flags, %","value":56.7},{"measure":"First-time as a share of all new-entry flags, %","value":43.3},{"measure":"Returning flags where the previous collected day was yesterday","value":165235},{"measure":"Returning flags sitting across a collection gap","value":26397},{"measure":"Of returning flags, share on a consecutively collected day, %","value":86.2},{"measure":"Of returning flags, share across a collection gap, %","value":13.8},{"measure":"Markets where returning records are a majority of new entries","value":34},{"measure":"Markets where returning records are below half of new entries","value":8},{"measure":"Feeds where returning records are a majority of new entries","value":4},{"measure":"Feeds where returning records are below half of new entries","value":3}]}