Stationhead

A Record-Breaking Streaming Party

by

Anonarmy

There are certain things that can create a moment on ARMY Twitter - something that will be talked about in future; a ‘remember when we…’ that ARMYs wistfully reminisce over. The most obvious cause is something directly related to BTS; an award or chart position that we celebrate together with them. Sometimes it’s something not at all instigated by them, but still planned by ARMYs. The BTSMVAs ‘awards show,’ for example, was specifically instigated by ARMY as a way of boycotting the VMAs for not giving BTS their rightful dues in the main awards categories.

And sometimes…. a Moment appears seemingly from nowhere.

On the 25^th of May, 2021; ARMY had a record -breaking streaming party with 200,000 participants. And we never particularly meant it to happen, at least not on such a scale. It just…did.

On reflection, there were certainly things that helped. We were already angry about Spotify having brutally filtered our streams for the new single ‘Butter’. I won’t deviate too much into the murkier details, but at the very least, our genuine streams, many of them from paid-for premium accounts, were being treated as bot activity. It brought about that awful, but all too familiar feeling that no matter how hard we work, no matter how closely we study the systems we are forced to engage with to bring BTS the recognition they deserve, it will always be unfair. And not only will it be unfair, but we won’t even be deigned with an answer as to why it is unfair. Spotify refused to engage with us about what had happened. We were expected to sit down and shut up. 

BTSCHARTDATA

Angry and disappointed ARMYs are (to my eternal admiration) often the most motivated ARMYs. We don’t give up easily, we keep streaming. So, when our main chart account, @btschartdata broadcast a show on Stationhead (an app that allows people to playlist songs for others to listen along to from their own streaming accounts, much like a radio show) for a streaming party, it did well. Well enough that when @STATIONHEAD released the daily rankings, btschartdata ranked top. Again, this wasn’t intentional. In fact, many ARMYs were probably unaware the streaming party had even happened. But we’re such a huge fandom that even a tiny proportion can have enormous numbers.

This ranking was enough to attract the attention of a wider range of ARMYs. We love to come out top on things and btschartdata has a lot of goodwill from the fandom. Whilst no one account outside of @BTS_twt is going to have universal adoration (and nor should they), he has built up our trust over several years and proved to be a positive force. So when he started another streaming party on Stationhead, we were extra willing to pile in.

Here’s where it starts to get a little harder to explain. The numbers of listeners of the broadcast climbed and climbed, in their tens of thousands. ARMYs love to see solid numbers and have targets to hit, so that certainly helped. Then, and I think crucially, Stationhead started to talk to us directly.

I call this crucial because I think the contrast with Spotify was incredibly stark here. Spotify went radio silence when their streaming numbers stopped updating. Spotify, when contacted by ARMYs directly, sent vague, evasive replies, giving the impression that ARMYs are at best, not regarded as important, and at worse, regarded as a nuisance. As the hours turned into days with Spotify not addressing what we all could see was happening, it became clearer and clearer that customers like us are not a priority. If Spotify exists for their customer, it is for the ones who passively stick on a curated playlist; don’t think too much, just absorb whatever their algorithm deems worthy or being listened to. In other words, people who don’t like music too much. If you care enough to really engage with artists, you are a bot. And that’s if they are for their customers at all. Their recent moves suggest more that Spotify is for powerful record labels with the money to pay for ‘exposure’ on the app. If anything, it is customers that are being sold to those labels, rather than music being sold to customers.

Stationhead, on the other hand, were clearly delighted at our presence on their app. And whilst I won’t be naïve enough to disregard the fact they were benefiting from it, they went above and beyond to engage with us. When we asked if the numbers were current listeners, they were quick to respond. When we asked about listener records, they were happy to oblige us with that information too. When they started to make graphics celebrating the milestones we were reaching, they took on our feedback that we wanted to be referred to as ARMY. They even bantered with us in their tweets. I had a striking thought as I watched it unfold: “Wow, we found a platform that doesn’t act like they hate us.” With only 13 employees at Stationhead, they managed more than the entire staff of Spotify.

STATIONHEAD

The numbers kept climbing; 100K, 150K, 200K. For hours and hours, ARMYs were having fun on the timeline appreciating BTS’ music, reminiscing about choreography and concerts and memes. The streaming party hashtag trended number 1 worldwide. We even had accidental trends as we all enjoyed the same songs, at the same time. It was the community feeling of a concert, something we have missed so badly over the past year. It got to the point that many people remarked they forgot it was a streaming party at all until they heard Butter again.

Ryan Star

We also found out that Stationhead was formed on some of the same beliefs that ARMYs hold; that the gatekeeping in radio is harmful to artists and unrepresentative of genuine fan interest. That the current system is broken, with music and music fans seemingly forgotten in favour of making money. It seems a good match. Stationhead saw their Twitter followers go from the low thousands to the tens of thousands in a matter of hours thanks the publicity from the streaming party. Whilst they had some teething problems with us afterwards when they tried to pit us against another fandom, they did take on our feedback about that.

ARMY and Stationhead inevitably have different priorities, but we do seem to have found a platform we can work with. And, though it’s sad that it’s so remarkable, a platform that actually wants us there.

Interestingly, when the unofficial streaming party ended, another official one, ran by BTS’ record label, began. And it didn’t get anywhere near the same number of listeners. Whilst you can put that partly down to fatigue, I feel there were several other factors that affected this. First of all, the website was clunky and awkward compared to what we had just experienced with Stationhead. It was hard to go between it and Twitter without the stream disconnecting, making the community element harder to maintain. It was also incredibly short, just 10 songs. This didn’t allow for momentum to build like the previous streaming party. Nor did it allow for as much of BTS’ back catalogue to be covered, or for songs to flow as seamlessly.

Most importantly though, and this is something that many people seem to misunderstand with BTS and ARMY, is it was an outsider stepping in and actively trying to push ARMY engagement. This is not meant at all as a criticism, I applaud the record company for doing it (although I would prefer a platform that works better). But the fact remains that long before anything like this, ARMYs have always organised ourselves.

Being so incredibly motivated and such an authentically organic grassroots movement is what makes ARMY so remarkable and special. For years, we have been driven to independently vote, stream, and request. It is often remarked upon that high SNS engagement is what made BTS so huge. The music industry, both in South Korea and in the West, has tried to manufacture similar engagement for other artists, hoping for the same incredible results. What is missing from that is we do it because we love BTS. That is the heart of it. The engagement is only an expression of that love, a side effect. And that love is what compels us do the work needed to give them everything we know they deserve. If we had had to be asked or encouraged, then that would mean the depth of feeling was never there in the first place. You cannot imitate ARMY if you do not have a fandom that feels the same as ARMY.

And we are proud of that. We are proud that we make things happen, motivated only by how much we adore BTS and their music. A streaming party, run by an ARMY, for other ARMYs, trending worldwide and breaking records, is the encapsulation of that ethos. Whilst a record company streaming party may seem to be the same on the outside, it is not. It is missing the heart.

Further Stationhead streaming parties since then have not reached the same heights. The next one was hampered by technical problems when ARMYs all rushed to join the app at once, unlike the steady stream we had before, which hampered the momentum. Beyond that, the stars just didn’t quite align the way they had on the 25^th. Maybe they never will again. Obviously, we would love to have that kind of engagement again in terms of streams, but perhaps it’s alright that it was only one spectacular, unprecedented moment. Perhaps that’s what made it special.

No matter if it is the only time, on 25^th May, 2021, ARMY did something wonderful.