LOOK WHAT I FOUND!! This is so great, IMO! 1) How can I read the typical "chart statistic" that is posted in many threads here? I see so many random numbers and no one says what each number means!
Let's use a "historical example"
Today's update of the Pop chart for the number song is this one:
4 1 BRITNEY SPEARS Circus 9184 8641 543 59.659
The information should be read like this:
Last week position - This week position - Artist - Song - Number of spins for this week - Number of spins of last week - Change in the number of weekly spins - Audience impression2) OK, better but now,
what exactly does "spins" mean?
Spins refer to the number of times that a song is played on the radio. If you are currently hearing a song in the radio, that is a Spin that would count for the stats of your radio.
Usually, here we talk of the accumulated number of spins for the last seven days, so it's a weekly accumulated number.
3) And
where is the bullet?! I always read that bullet when talking about chart stats :/
When the "change in the number of weekly spins" (see above) is positive, then we have a Bullet! In another words, the bullet is the number of new spins that a song gained over the past 7 days (in our example: 543 is the bullet).
There is a common mistake to call bullet as difference of spins, but that is not accurate. A song with a difference of -100 is simply "unbulleted". You have the idea that the bullet goes forward and not backwards, right? Same here.
4)
What does Audience impression (AI) mean?! Number of average people? How can there be 0.659 people? Come on!
An audience impression is a measure of how large an audience a song reaches, and is usually expressed in millions of people. For example, one play by a New York radio station might be rated as a certain number of million impressions, meaning that this is a reasonable if necessarily inexact estimate of the number of people who heard it.
5)
Who are the daddies? Hehe, daddies are not persons, but radio stations that are aired in the largest markets in the country -- those with largest AI (see below), so they are heard by most listeners. They were called daddies in here, since they are usually the leaders of the industry. Many radio stations can see what Z100 is playing and would just follow them.
6)
What is a recurrent song? If a song is purged, is it also recurrent? but then, what does going recurrent mean?! I'm confused!!!
I would start by saying that recurrent is a song that is not 'current' but is played on the radio often.
Mediabase has a ranking that includes Currents and Recurrents, which means including all songs that are highly played in a radio station, independent of their 'age'.
However, there are also rules for songs to go recurrent or earn recurrency.
There are two main criteria to consider to know if a song is going recurrent:
- Number of weeks: the song has been inside the Top 40 for TWENTY (20) WEEKS.
- Position inside the chart: the song has slipped outside of the Top 15.If a song fulfills both criteria, then on the Sunday official chart, the song will NOT appear in the Official chart anymore: the song went recurrent!!
What is 'being purged':
When a song that didn't fulfill the criteria to go recurrent is removed from the chart because it is already decreasing spins considerably (and Mediabase decides is not relevant anymore to be counted in the official chart).
There is no specific criteria for a song to be purged... and Mediabase can do purges randomly, but generally refers to songs that are unbulleted and below the Top 40. These songs will be included in the "Mediabase w/Recurrents" chart, since they are considered non-currents or 'recurrents', but they did not 'earn recurrency' but were 'forced' to become recurrent, or 'purged'.
Going recurrent is a sort of status of a song that managed to remain inside the Top 40 for enough weeks that could 'graduate' from it with honors instead of being 'dropped out'.
Also, the 'purge' is not necessarily automatic, i.e., if a song slips from #38 to #41 in the Sunday Evening Update, this doesn't mean that it will necessarily be purged. Mediabase may want to wait another week and purge the song the following week.
It is also always important to keep in mind that Mediabase can be random still, and make some "mistakes". For example, making The Script's "Breakeven" go recurrent despite going from #16 to #15 in the Sunday update; or sending to recurrency songs that are close to the limit but have not passed it yet (i.e. a song that is at #15, 10 spins above #16. Mediabase might have it purged in the afternoon update, because the difference was very small, even though the afternoon or evening update might have increased (rather than decreased) the spin gap between #15 and #16.
8) What does adds mean... it's quiet confusing.. coz XXX is already played on radio but no adds date yet?/ what does it mean and how it will affect the song?
When a song goes for adds, basically it means it being "officially" released for stations to add the song, the promo CD is usually sent out a little before or around the adds date as well.... also just cuz a station spins a song doesnt mean its added, it has to be added to their playlist and spun regularly throughout the week, not just 1 or 2 spins here and there. Adds dates dont really affect major artists since their music is bound to take off anyways, but an adds date possibly gives it a little boost reminding Programmers that a song is going for adds that week...
9) What is Quick Cut (... it sounds bloody dangerous- ouch!)?
The Quick Cut data uses rolling numbers but under a different panel, which is all stations under a specific format. Therefore, for most if not all songs, Quick Cut Data tends to have higher spin counts, since more stations are included in the panel as opposed to the published panel that we use when making posts on this board.
10) I always read posters begging for a song to be "played on AT40" to have more spins. I know Ryan Secrest is popular, but how much can he help a song's performance by playing in AT40?
The AT40 effect is what occurs when a song gets its first play on the popular American Top 40 (AT40) countdown show; because it is a widely-syndicated program (meaning it plays on most CHR/POP stations) a song will usually see a large spin gain over the weekend of its debut. The spins gained from the AT40 play will be reflected on the Sunday morning and Monday morning updates (showing the airplay for the previous day, respectively).
There are 2 ways that a song can get its first play on AT40:
- As a Breakout (a song rising on the charts but has yet to make the countdown)
- As a New Entry on the countdown (one of the 40 songs of the chart).
Of course, a song could also be featured as an Extra (after it was a Breakout, but before entering the Countdown), or just randomly because Ryan Secrest likes it (as what happened with Paula Abdul's "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow"), but both cases are not regular on the show.
It is also important to remember that if a song is played for 2 or more weeks in a row, the effect wears off on the 2nd week, because the AT40 spin is no longer considered "new" (as it was played the previous week). So, for example, if a song was a Breakout, then an Extra, and then a New Entry, the song has been played for 3 weeks in a row. The AT40 effect would only be reflected the first week as it received the first bunch of new spins that week. But, if a song is a Breakout and then it's not featured on the countdown, but then enters the countdown, we will see a big effect on the first weekend, then a loss of spins the next weekend, and then an increase on the following weekend because of being featured again on the show.
In terms of the exact number of spins that will gain thanks to AT40, it varies, but it is good to consider the following information that I compiled in 2008 in terms of the number of stations playing the show per day:
89 stations on Saturday
200 stations on Sunday.
(the numbers include unmonitored radio stations, too)
That is why usually the AT40 effect is a BIG DEAL for a song, because on a Monday, it could have a gain in spins above 100!!
CHR/Pop: The CHR/Pop is also known as Mainstream CHR or Top 40 and plays a bit of every popular genre (pop, R&B, urban, rock, country crossovers); in terms of incorporating a variety of genres of music, CHR/Pop is the successor to the original concept of Top 40 radio originated in the 1950s.
The term CHR comes from Contemporary Hit Radio, which is a radio format common in the US and Canada that focuses on playing current and recent popular music. Used alone, CHR most often refers to the CHR/pop format (but there are other subcategories, such as CHR/rhythmic or CHR/dance). The term Contemporary Hit Radio was coined in the early 1980s by Radio & Records magazine to designate Top 40 stations which continued to play hits from all musical genres.
