How MintBear data is calculated

1. Data source

Data comes from the now-playing metadata and airplay history that the stream provider publishes for every station in the catalog. MintBear does not recognize audio and does not measure audiences: the numbers describe airplay, not listeners.

2. What counts as a play

A play (airplay spin) is a history entry that passes the music filter. Ads, jingles, news and other service segments are excluded. Duplicate entries for the same track at the same time on the same station are removed.

3. Weekly Top 100

The chart covers a closed Monday–Sunday week in Moscow time. All seven days are required, with data from at least 95% of catalog stations each day. Positions follow the number of plays, then the number of stations.

"Coverage 183 / 183" means that many stations delivered data on the weakest day of the week out of the stations in the catalog. "Complete days 7 / 7" counts days that passed the completeness check.

4. Similar streams

Stations that share many tracks over the last 28 days come first. Only verified days and pairs with a meaningful overlap count, and the number of shared tracks is shown.

Remaining places are filled by shared genres and moods. Rare traits weigh more than traits almost every station has, and no more than two streams come from one radio network.

5. Station sound

MintBear analyses 30-second previews of aired tracks itself: loudness, density of beats and tempo. They add up to a station’s “energy” and tempo over the last four weeks. This describes sound, not emotion: a preview cannot tell whether a song is sad or happy.

A station is measured once at least half of its airplay has an analysed preview. Previews exist for roughly four in five plays and are unevenly spread: some stations have too few of them and are not measured.

This page used to show a daily mood map. It was retired: station rotations barely change from one day to the next, so the map showed practically the same picture every day, with no notable differences between days or hours.

6. Radar

Radar is an experimental watchlist of tracks outside the Top 100 whose plays and number of radio brands both grew during the week. The score out of 100 compares changes within one week and is not a popularity forecast.

7. Update frequency

Now playing refreshes about every half minute while the player is open. Station history is updated within half an hour. Daily digests are built overnight for the previous day and station sound is refreshed overnight; the chart and Radar after the week closes.

8. Limitations

Provider metadata can contain errors and gaps. Different spellings, remixes and versions of one track are sometimes counted separately. Airplay does not equal listening, sales or popularity on streaming services.