A track gets on a free download chart when enough fans download it from a free download gate in a short time. Aden's chart ranks Aden download gates by the downloads they gained in the last 7 days, while Hypeddit and Droploud rank the gates on their own platforms. Make a gate with Create download beside the title on Charts (also at hype.aden.space and chart.aden.space), turn on your public downloads page, and send the gate to people who already want your music.

Nobody can promise you a place on these charts, and you should walk away from anyone who sells one. What you can control is the gate, the genre, the timing and where you share it.

What is a free download chart?

A download gate is a page that hands out a file in exchange for something small: an email address, a name, a follow. A free download chart ranks those gates by how many people downloaded from them, Top 100 per genre. Charts collects three of them:

A fourth chart, All, ranks the three together. Free download charts explained covers how its points work.

We know exactly how Aden's chart is built, because we build it. We don't know the exact formula Hypeddit or Droploud use beyond what they publish. Aden shows their positions as published and doesn't reorder them. If someone tells you the precise weighting of either chart, ask where they got it.

How does a track get on the Aden chart?

Once a night, Aden reads the download total of every eligible gate and ranks the gates by what they gained over the last 7 days. A gate counts when:

1. It belongs to a team whose public downloads page is switched on.
2. It has no password.
3. It is inside its date window, if you set one: already started, not yet ended.
4. It gained at least one download in the last 7 days. Gates that gained nothing are left off.

The chart across all genres takes every eligible gate. The genre charts file a gate under the first genre of the track it gives away, so set your track's genre in Aden before you share the gate. A gate that isn't attached to a track, an album gate for example, only appears on the chart across all genres.

Because only 7 days count, your place follows your last week. 300 downloads in three days ranks far higher than 300 spread over three months, and a week after the push ends, those downloads stop counting.

How do I make a free download gate on Aden?

1. Open Charts and press Create download beside the title (a plus on phones). Inside your team you can also open Downloads and click New, or pick Create download gate from a track's actions menu on the tracks board.
2. Under Fans get, pick the track. The title fills in from what you picked.
3. Under Unlock with, pick what fans give in exchange: email, name, phone, socials or lifetime fan. Leave payment off. These are free download charts.
4. Open More for a description, a date window or a contact group. Leave the password empty, or the gate stays off the chart.
5. Save. The gate lives on your public profile at aden.space/@yourteam/downloads/your-gate.
6. Turn on your public downloads page. On your team's Downloads page, press Public page in the toolbar (the same switch is in Settings → Website under Download page) and switch on Share my catalogue for download.

Already running gates on Hypeddit, Droploud or ToneDen? Import from Hypeddit on your team's Downloads page turns up to 25 of them at a time into Aden gates. Aden can't read the file behind a gate, so you paste your own file link for each one.

To chart on Hypeddit or Droploud as well, you need a gate on that platform. The megaphone button on the Downloads pages opens Download pools, which lists Hypeddit, Droploud, ToneDen and DJ record pools, each linking to its submission page.

What actually drives downloads?

A gate charts when people want the file. Three things decide that more than any setting on the gate.

A real audience

The downloads come from people who already follow you, play your genre or read your mailing list. Post the gate where they are: your socials, your newsletter, the DJs you send music to, the group chats in your scene. A short clip gives people a reason to click; see how to make a music snippet video.

Keep the gate short. Every extra field or follow is one more step between the click and the file, so ask only for what you'll use.

Bought downloads and bot traffic are a waste of money for the same reasons bought streams are. You cannot game the algorithm explains why.

The right genre

Fewer gates compete on a genre chart than on the chart across all genres, so a genre chart is where a new artist has a realistic shot. Pick the genre the track actually is, not the busiest one. DJs browse their own genre's chart for tracks to play, and a mislabelled track reaches people who skip it.

Look before you release. Today's Tech House chart on Hypeddit shows who you'd be next to, and the downloads column shows the count each platform reports for the tracks there.

Timing

On Aden, only the last 7 days count. Put the gate out when you can push it for a whole week: the week of a release, the day you play it in a set, the day another DJ plays it. Then plan the next one. A gate every few weeks gives you more chances to chart than one big gate a year.

How do I see my tracks charting?

You don't have to search the charts by hand.

• Charting widget, on Home and on a team's dashboard: one tile per track on a free download chart today, with its place, its move and its last ten days.
• A track's Analytics: every free download chart the track is on, one row per chart and genre, each opening that chart.
• Download pools, on the Downloads pages: under Hypeddit and Droploud, each of your gates there with its place today, or Not charting.

To make sure Aden follows a gate on Hypeddit or Droploud, add it yourself:

1. Open Download pools and press + beside the platform.
2. Pick the track and paste the link to your gate there.
3. Give it a name, like Instrumental or Mashup 2, or leave it empty and Aden takes the name from the gate's page.
4. Save. The nightly charts crawl now follows that exact gate.

A song with several gates on one platform, two mashups and an instrumental for example, gets a place for each. Gates the charts find on Hypeddit or Droploud on their own show up too.

FAQ

How many downloads do I need to get on a free download chart?

There is no fixed number. Your place depends on what every other gate in the genre did that week, so it changes from chart to chart and week to week. On the Aden chart a gate needs at least one download in the last 7 days to appear at all, and a quiet genre needs far fewer than the chart across all genres. Open the genre you're aiming for and read the downloads column to see what the tracks there have.

Can Aden get my track on the Hypeddit or Droploud chart?

No. Hypeddit and Droploud rank the gates on their own platforms, and Aden only reads their charts and shows the positions as they publish them. To chart there, put a gate on that platform. Aden then shows where each of your gates places every day.

Do follow requirements keep a gate off the Aden chart?

No. The Aden chart counts downloads whether the gate asks fans for an email, a follow or both. A password keeps a gate off the chart, and so does a team whose public downloads page is switched off.

How long does a track stay on the Aden chart?

As long as it keeps gaining downloads. The chart counts the last 7 days, so a gate drops once the downloads from its big week fall out of that window and other gates gain more.

How often do the free download charts update?

Once a day. Aden reads the Aden, Hypeddit and Droploud charts every night and keeps every day, so you can go back and see where a track was on any day since the charts started.