The Elements charts stopped being PremiumBeat's
Every position in every Popular chart we watch belonged to Envato's own catalogue. In the last week of August that fell to 9.3%, and 457 independent authors took the rest.
On 24 August the Funk chart on Envato Elements opened with Green Doors, Celebrate Good Times, Eddie's New Do and Crunchy Cowboy. All four are PremiumBeat, Envato's own catalogue. So was everything below them, and so was every item on the 51 other charts we watch.
A week later the same page opened with Funk by RVStudio, Funky by Top-Flow and Funk by CoffeeMusic.
What we saw
Every week we snapshot 52 mood, genre and theme pages in their default Popular order — 72 positions each, 3,744 in all. Here is what those positions held:
| week | PremiumBeat | of the 520 top-10 slots | independent authors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jul — 24 Aug | 3,744 (100%) | 520 | 0 |
| 31 Aug | 349 (9.3%) | 30 | 457 |
| 7 Sep | 350 (9.3%) | 30 | 456 |
Not a drift. Four consecutive captures at exactly 100%, then two at 9.3%. Whatever happened, happened inside the week of 24 August.
Before it, no chart we watch had a single independent item in its top ten. Now all 52 do.
Only the browse pages
Relevance search never looked like this. PremiumBeat's share of ordinary search results has sat between 2.4% and 7% all along, and it drifted down over the same period rather than jumping:
| week | 10 Aug | 17 Aug | 24 Aug | 31 Aug | 7 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PremiumBeat in search | 5.5% | 5.7% | 4.3% | 3.1% | 2.4% |
So this is about one surface: the mood, genre and theme pages a buyer browses when they don't have a search term in mind. Those pages were a closed shelf. They aren't now.
Who is on the shelf
456 independent authors, and not two large catalogues wearing different names:
- 99 authors hold exactly one position
- 140 hold two or three
- 139 hold four to ten
- 78 hold eleven or more
Among them, 32 authors with an epicukulele account, on 148 chart positions this week.
What we are not saying
Two weeks is two weeks. We don't know whether Envato has changed how these pages rank for good, whether it is testing something, or whether their catalogue returns next Monday. We'll keep capturing every week and you'll see it in Analytics → Charts, PremiumBeat's share printed next to each chart.
What is worth doing now: look at the charts for the moods and genres you actually write in. Until a fortnight ago the answer to "can I get on this page" was no, for everyone, regardless of the track. That answer has changed, and the pages are browsed by buyers who arrive without a search term — which is the audience your tags never reach.