Vietnamese music in the era of 'multi-platform hits': Miracles, Treasures and more

On August 17, S(TRONG) Trong Hieu announced the "all-kill" achievement of the song Kho Bau. The song ranked first on most popular music platforms in Vietnam such as the Blue Wave chart, The Official Chart Vietnam (under IFPI - International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), Billboard Top Vietnamese Song, Zing MP3, NCT, iTunes, Apple Music top 30, Spotify Viral 50, Spotify top 50, Trending Capcut, Shazam Chart (Vietnamese music).

Notably, this does not include YouTube's trending top, which has "made waves" in Vietnamese music for many years. From now on, artists have many other bases than trending top, which encourages artists to develop on multiple platforms.

Hit like Miracle, Treasure is not just YouTube

Previously, the song "Miracle" was recognized as a "national hit" when it topped Billboard Top Vietnamese Song and The Official Chart Vietnam for a long time.

If Billboard Vietnam is the Vietnamese version of the world-famous Billboard chart, The Official Chart Vietnam has a regional scope, not only ranking hits in Vietnam but also in other Southeast Asian countries to show the most comprehensive regional music picture.

"For the past month, I've been living in a dream with the song Kho Bau. These numbers are a huge source of motivation for me to continue making music and living my passion for the stage" - (S) TRONG shared when Kho Bau "all-killed" all platforms.

On YouTube, the MV Kho Bau has reached 7.7 million views after nearly a month of posting. Normally, without data from other platforms and reputable rankings, this number of views cannot be considered a "hit".

But now the reality has changed, the number of views on YouTube of a song does not reflect its full influence.

Similarly, after six months of posting, the MV "Miracle" only reached nearly 47 million views on YouTube. Previously, songs considered "national hits" by Son Tung M-TP or Jack had hundreds of millions of views in a shorter period of time.

But this decline does not show that Vietnamese music is declining, it only shows that YouTube music views are declining. And this is in line with international trends.

This year, the Vietnamese national hit with the highest number of views on YouTube is Bac Bling, with over 251 million views. This song is a special case because the audience spans many ages. Singer Hoa Minzy often calls on children to "plow views" for her because the song is suitable for children's taste.

Along with the above hits, the Blue Wave chart recorded Bac thang len hoi ong troi by the team Bich Phuong, Lamoon, Juky San, Quynh Anh Shyn and My My in Em xinh say hi as also a Vietnamese music hit of the past week. This song topped the music trending list on YouTube after its release.

But the song has not yet appeared in the top of Billboard Top Vietnamese Song and The Official Chart Vietnam. This shows that to become a real big hit, the song needs to be more popular than the top trending YouTube.

When prestigious charts are updated weekly, audiences will recognize the lasting success of songs instead of their short-term popularity.

There are songs that stay on the charts for a long time and deserve to be considered hits. The artist's efforts are also more clearly seen over a long period of time, instead of being on the top trending list for the first few weeks and then disappearing.

For example, looking at The Official Vietnam Chart in recent weeks, in addition to Magic and Bac Bling with high rankings, audiences will see Gia Nhu (Soobin), Lost Connection (Duong Domic), Seven (Jungkook), Cay (Khac Hung, Jimmii Nguyen), Dung Lam Trai Tim Anh Dau (Son Tung M-TP)... There are songs that were released last year, the year before that are still listened to a lot by Vietnamese audiences.

In line with international trends

This year, BlackPink's Jump was a hit on multiple platforms in multiple countries. The song has racked up 155 million views on YouTube in just over a month since its release.

In 2018, the group's MV Ddu-Du Ddu-Du reached 200 million views in just one month and currently has 2.3 billion views. Jump is unlikely to reach Ddu-Du Ddu-Du 's number, but this is an inevitable trend and cannot be considered a decline for BlackPink.

According to The Week, today, to know which songs are "hot", the audience does not depend on any single list.

Hits can come from anywhere, from short videos , searches, recommendations, comments, trends across all music-using platforms, and even the distinct communities that audiences engage with. What’s popular with one person may not be visible to another. It’s all become highly personalized.

"In 2015, a single list might reflect everyone watching, but not anymore," commented The Week.

Through the innovation that is YouTube Charts, YouTube also wants to offer personalized charts, highlighting top music and podcasts.

This change is more than just a new design, it reflects how society as a whole is consuming content today: more personal, more diverse, and based on what's truly relevant to each person.