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from the
PUBLISHER'S
PEN
THE INSIDE STORY ABOUT THE DIFFERENT
MONTHLY TOP 100 INDUSTRY CHARTS.
It seems that the beginning of
every year someone always tries to stir the pot and create some sort
of controversy. Some do
it because they are only trying to be of help
and think they have a better idea, and
these “new ideas” come and go every year.
Here is the truth about
the different way charts are created.
First you have to understand that there are different types of
charts.
1. Most charts that we have in our genre are all created by
either Record Companies or Compilation Companies, and they are then
posted either on the their individuals websites or in some kind of
print publication like an industry magazine or newspaper.
2. There are different
types of Top 100 Charts:
Type 1. You
have the type chart where a record company or compilation company
will call the radio stations that they know are friendly stations
and will ask the radio programmer or music director if they are
playing songs off their latest compilation CD, and if they are being
played in light, medium or heavy rotation.
From that information they determine their T0P 100 Chart.
Type
2. These guys will send the radio station a list of songs and
ask them to pick out whether or not they are playing them.
On that list the DJ will mark Light - Medium - Heavy - Pass
– or Don't have. Then the DJ can list a few other songs that he
wants to add (however that
does NOT mean that they will be added to the Top 100 chart at the
end of that month).
Type
3. Then you have Organizational chart(s) that only use US radio
reporters and if you join their organization you get more points.
Then depending on how much money the artist spends with the
organization over time will determine how high their song goes on
the charts and how long it stays there.
Miscellaneous. You
have some charts that only want to consider the larger radio
stations and some only want to count actual radio spins which
eliminates the smaller market stations. These guys actually turn
their nose up at the other charts.
In
the beginning I didn't want to believe this was going on.
We got so tired of hearing all of this that we decided to
start our own Top 100 Monthly Chart.
So we did that. We have always believed that the radio
stations were the life-line for the artists.
When we first started we really had a hard time getting radio
to send in their playlists because they had been so beaten up by the
different Record Labels and Compilation companies.
These industry people would try to tell radio then what to
play and who to play, and how many times to play it, and even which
artists were to get more points than others.
And if radio didn’t comply, they said they wouldn’t send
them their compilation.
So first of all you should know that we don't ever tell any radio
station:
Who to Play; What songs to Play; or when to Play them. We only
want to send them our compilation CDs, and if they want to play any
of the music on the CD, then we are very thankful for the airplay.
Every radio playlist that is sent to us, we treat with the same
respect. It doesn't
matter how big or how little it is.
We have a simple point system.
Each song gets the same amount of points.
We won't give any artist more points than another. It
took a long time for the different radio stations to gain confidence
in us, knowing that we were not going to pressure them.
In any given month we may receive 85 to 165 play lists.
Several times we have counted up the number of songs that
came in during that one-month period and we have had to enter
anywhere from 6,300 to 7,500 song titles into our computer.
After that data is entered, we punch sort and from there we
get the TOP 100 Chart.
We will not have a real accurate picture of
actual airplay until we are able to get every radio station to send
in their playlist. We know that will never happen, but with every new playlist
we receive, we’re a little bit closer.
The system of tabulating the actual number
of spins per month would be the best way to go, but then you have to
get all the different radio stations, indie shows and DJ's to send
in their playlists that way, and we know many have tried that in the
past but it has not happened yet.
One final note to remember – the process of compiling a monthly
chart is VERY time consuming and it is a thankless job.
We use to get people who would complain saying, “why won't you let
us see the radio playlists.” We would respond with, "We have
many radio people who just don't want anyone to know who or what
they are playing,” (And they had there own reasons for that).
As I said earlier Radio is Our
Life Line." So since we started posting the DJ
playlists on our TuneVille
Xpress website, we have honored their requests when they
haven’t wanted their contact information made public.
To find the playlists just go to www.tunevillexpress.com
then scroll down on the left-hand side of the front page and click
on "Posted Playlists."
That will take you to another page that gives you the month
and week where you can check them out.
We receive playlists from radio stations
and programmers all over the world, but unfortunately all of our
reporting stations don’t report every month.
It would be nice if they did, but we can’t pressure them so
we are just thankful each month for those that do.
Remember, this is how our system works:
If your name comes in on a playlist, you get points.
If it doesn’t come in on a playlist, you don’t get
points. It’s that
simple.
I hope this gives you a little more understanding about how
Charts (and our chart in particular) works. I'm not trying to say
that our way is the right way or the others are wrong.
We’ve just found a fair and honest system that eliminates
“weighting” and other contributing factors that would skew the
results, and from our point of view it produces the closest thing to
an accurate actual airplay chart that we could design.
Until the next time,
Blessings
Gene Farington
PS: And don't grow
weary in well doing.
If you have a question please feel free to call us at:
870-741-1409. E-Mail us at: info@theconnectionon-line.com.
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