01 · Methodology · v1.0.0 · 25 May 2026
How we build the chart.
AISCEND's weekly chart is a composite of four public signals about music. Nothing is hidden. Nothing is paid for. This page is the source of truth — if a number on the chart disagrees with this page, this page is right.
The four signals
Public RSS signal (Apple Music)
We read the publicly available Apple Music Top Songs RSS feed (no login, no contract) and compute 7-day rank deltas. We treat this data as a public signal, not as a licensed input. AISCEND is not an Apple partner.
Reddit velocity (6h)
Public Reddit JSON for r/electronicmusic, r/futurebeats, r/wearethemusicmakers, r/aimusic. Velocity = upvotes-per-hour × comment-to-upvote ratio, last 6 hours. Bots and brigades are filtered with a 1k-stream-equivalent noise floor.
Suno + Udio public exposure
Tracks that have been publicly shared (Reddit, public Suno/Udio pages) count once we can verify the public URL. We do not crawl logged-in pages. Self-uploaded tracks without external mentions do not count.
Editorial mentions
Resident Advisor news + features, Pitchfork track reviews, Crack Magazine, Mixmag. Counted as a binary signal per track within the 7-day window.
What we do not measure
- — Spotify charts, plays, or playlists (ToS prohibits chart aggregation)
- — Audio fingerprinting or any form of audio-based AI inference about the track itself
- — Lyrical content or sentiment
- — Fan-comment sentiment
- — Paid placements or label-promoted positions
- — We make no claim of partnership with Apple Music, Spotify, Suno, or Udio.
AI disclosure — what we claim
AISCEND does not claim to detect whether a track was made with AI tools by analyzing the audio. We surface tracks that are publicly disclosed as AI-tooled — through a public Suno or Udio listing, or through the artist's self-declaration on the submission form. Where disclosure is absent, we say so.
Signal labels on the chart
≥3 independent signal sources, none of which is the artist's own submission.
2 sources, or 1 source plus the artist's self-declared submission.
Only the artist's submission. Listed for transparency, not ranked at the top.
Sources of error
- Regional bias — Apple Music RSS over-indexes English-language markets.
- Subreddit selection bias — the four subreddits skew toward Western club music.
- Submission over-representation — labels that submit aggressively could over-fill the chart's lower ranks. Noise floor mitigates this.
- AI disclosure relies on self-reporting and public platform metadata. We do not verify it cryptographically.
- No audio analysis — a track that exists only on private platforms is invisible to AISCEND.
Changelog & versioning
This methodology is version 1.0.0, published 25 May 2026. Weight changes require a 14-day public notice on /changelog. Source additions or removals are noted on the same page with rationale.
Disputes & takedowns
If a chart entry is wrong, attributed incorrectly, or violates your rights, please use the takedown form. We respond within 7 business days. Genuine errors are corrected with a public note on the affected week's chart.
Audio access
AISCEND does not host audio files or audio previews. Each chart entry carries a “Source” button that links directly to the original Reddit post in which the track was disclosed by its creator. Audio playback lives there — via Suno player, Udio player, or external link, depending on how the creator chose to share the track. This is methodological: we do not want to control distribution, only to surface visibility for openly disclosed AI music.
AISCEND is built by disruptive gmbh, Vienna. AI-Act transparency notice: this service uses automated systems to rank and analyse public music data. Methodology and human review are described above and at /en/eu-ai-act.