I'm pretty sure Andrew is right about the play count tracking judging, not regular listens. When my song "Avalon" was in the Music Finals last month, it didn't make it into the top bunch until there were only a couple hours left to vote. And yet it had still gotten thousands of new plays, just like all the others there. It seems unlikely that those numbers could have been only for regular "listening", because most people visiting during that time are voting.