Last month we wrote about the launch of We Are Hunted which uses semantic technology to find out, based on what’s happening on the social web, what the most popular song at any particular moment in time is.

Well, We Are Hunted (WAH) are back with a new service - The We Are Hunted Twitter Chart, which looks specifically to chart the number of plays an artist is getting on Twitter.

Richard Slatter from Wotnews/We are Hunted explains how the charts are created:

By combining this data with the insights from our global charts we calculate the live Twitter chart. More than just a straight count of artist mentions, the We Are Hunted Twitter Chart reflects which artists are being played most by Twitter users.

For me, that difference (focus on actual plays, not buzz) will make a big difference in the value of the charts for the various types of people who might use them (music seekers, marketers etc.)

Part of the reason for focusing on Twitter would appear to be because it’s the most real-time component of social media. This is reflected in some of the stats the WAH team have pulled out of the broader WAH tracking.

You can get examples of results on their research page (including the chart below, which shows the Beastie Boys blow up on Twitter in line with the release of the new Star Trek featuring a young Kirk blasting their their song, “Sabotage”.) The immediacy of this information and the potential it creates for new ways of doing business in music is staggering, in my mind.

You can check out the We Are Hunted Twitter Chart HERE. Can’t wait to see what the WAH crew comes up with next.