Announcement: BB Changes Chart Rule

[ojibiwanqueenst]

Taking effect with this week's chart, BB's country chart is now based on audience andnot plays. I do believe this is official. i have not heard anything from BB, but it was posted elsewhere.

[imonmywayup]

aahh I hope it's not true....yet!

[cbspock]

These rule changes are stupid. All in a desperate hope to make it look like everything is not fixed.

I hope the prediction is true, that Satillite radio does in broadcast radio.

-Chris

[Jud]

Switch in response to concerns about
promotor manipulated ‘spin programs'

The Associated Press
Updated: 2:19 p.m. ET Jan. 7, 2005

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Billboard, the influential music industry trade magazine, is changing the way it ranks songs on its country singles chart after concerns that the old system allowed promoters to manipulate the rankings.

“It’s a change we’ve been contemplating for years, and it follows at least a year of very close scrutiny of the charts,” said Wade Jessen, director of Billboard’s country charts.

Until this month, a song’s position on the weekly Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart was determined by the number of spins, or plays, it received on 122 radio stations monitored by Billboard. The size of the station’s listening audience or the time of day didn’t matter — a 3 a.m. broadcast in Jackson, Tenn., counted the same as a 5 p.m. broadcast in Chicago.

But beginning with Billboard’s Jan. 15 issue, songs on the country chart will be ranked by audience impressions, or the number of people who actually hear it.

Not only will the value of the spin vary by market, it will vary by time of day depending on how many people are listening as measured by data from Arbitron, a media and marketing research firm.

“It switches from a most-played chart to a most-heard chart,” Jessen said.

Billboard already uses the method to compile some of its other radio charts, including Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop. The magazine’s competitor, Radio & Records, uses a similar system on its country singles chart but not its other charts.

Manipulating the system
Before the change, record labels and promoters were able to buy relatively cheap, late-night air time on small market radio stations to boost a song’s total plays and move it up the chart — momentum signified by a “bullet” that often translated to more airplay and record sales.

The sponsored spins, commonly called “spot buys” and “spin programs,” are similar to TV infomercials and permitted under Federal Communications Commission rules, provided they are clearly identified as paid advertisements.

Critics say that while legal, the practice is questionable.

“We don’t believe chart performance, especially in terms of the No. 1 record, should be fought and won on all-night shows in the smallest markets in the country,” Jessen said.

Ed Salamon, executive director of the trade group Country Radio Broadcasters, said readers look to the charts to determine which songs are most popular with listeners — not which ones have the most manipulation behind them.

“Rather than concentrate on genuine airplay, some record companies have created these campaigns to exploit the methodology of the major charts,” Salamon said.

A recent example was MCA Nashville’s promotion of Reba McEntire’s single, “Somebody.” The label purchased spot buys for the song with the syndicated radio show “After Midnite,” which is heard on nearly 300 radio stations; Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which owns more than 200 stations in 24 states; and Entercom, which owns stations in 21 markets, including Boston, Seattle and New Orleans.

The song reached No. 1 on the country singles chart the week of Aug. 7 with an unusually large gain of 1,150 spins from the previous week, Jessen said.

Defending the strategy
Scott Borchetta, promotion chief for MCA, Mercury and Dreamworks, did not return phone messages from the AP. But he defended the strategy in the trade publication Music Row, saying “Somebody” did receive help but reached No. 1 on its own merits.

“A lot of labels are whining that we paid upwards of $100,000. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Did we do several programs? Yes, but only for a fraction of that cost,” Borchetta said.

The practice isn’t unique to country music or to a particular label. Last year, rocker Avril Lavigne’s label, RCA, purchased overnight air time on Nashville top 40 station WQZQ to promote her single “Don’t Tell Me.” On May 23, the station played the song 18 times between midnight and 6 a.m., according to Billboard.

Billboard’s change probably won’t end spot buys, but it is expected to diminish their influence by giving more weight to large market stations.

“Typically, these radio stations are multimillion dollar profit centers and are not going to give up prime listening real estate the way it’s given up on all-night shows in small markets,” Jessen said.

But some Nashville record label executives worry that the shift from a spin-based to audience-based chart will hurt new artists, who often gain early momentum through spins during off-hours.

“A lot of times new artists break out on nights and overnights. Now, those spins won’t mean as much,” said Butch Waugh, executive vice president of RCA Label Group Nashville. “You can have more spins this week and show encouraging signs, but if the spins are occurring in nights and overnights, you can lose your bullet and send the signal that the record is losing momentum.”

Waugh says country artists already have fewer avenues for radio and chart exposure than their pop counterparts and will be limited even more. He also says ballads, a mainstay of country radio, will have a harder time cracking the chart under the new system.

“They are the last songs to go into morning drive,” he said. “So, you’re kind of being penalized if you are a new artist, or if you have a ballad. And if you’re a new artist with a ballad, you really have a hard time breaking into the system.”

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6799421/

[cbspock]

This figures, just in time to hurt Don't. :mad: :mad:

I am sure the devils at the labels and at radio will figure away to come up with new ways to bribe eachother.

This is such a load. I think it might be time to subscribe to XM or Sirius.


-Chris

[Jud]

Originally posted by cbspock
I am sure this devils at the labels and at radio will figure away to come up with new ways to bribe eachother.


-Chris

Yeap, but instead all the payola spreading out, it will be concentrated in the big (and anyway more rich) stations.

I have a feeling, that a lot of small stations will go down with the process, as till now they had the same weight on Billboard, so artists occasionally visited them, etc.
From now on none will really care about them...

[cbspock]

Yeah, this is going to have the affect of killing small markets. Way to go Music Industry, you skipped shooting yourself in the foot, and went right for the head shot. :duh!



-Chris

[GonnaGetcha720]

This is really going to hurt Shania. She never really got far over 25 million listeners with PFT...I think that's right at least...and to get a song to #1 you need about 35-40 million listeners...It looks like the chances of Shania getting another #1 are getting slimmer by the second.

[ojibiwanqueenst]

Yes this is a bad thing for Shania. She has always struggled in the audience department and now that's how to get a #1..

[Jud]

I am not sur eof Shania's singles always had audience impression problems?
PF2 sure had.
We will see.

[ojibiwanqueenst]

Originally posted by Jud
I am not sur eof Shania's singles always had audience impression problems?
PF2 sure had.
We will see.

PFT did and so did IOHWIB, I have only been watching the charts for those two singles, so I can't comment on the others.

[cbspock]

Originally posted by ojibiwanqueenst
PFT did and so did IOHWIB, I have only been watching the charts for those two singles, so I can't comment on the others.


She has also had a problem in that her label does not pay off stations like other labels do.


-Chris