Do you guys use a formula for your chart?

[Adonia]

I'm trying to decide if I should. I want a Top 50 or Top 100, but I think it would take too long to handpick the songs. The issue with a formula is that last.fm isn't a very accurate representation of what I like.

[Zeebz]

No, I don't use a formula. I really just base it off what I feel like are my favorite songs of the week, with plays helping a song get higher but not being that necessary to get higher on my chart. It would be really hard in my opinion to do a top 100 based solely on plays.

[Deleted]

I kinda have a formula, and it's based off the Mediabase alternative chart's spin numbers.

[EvanJ]

When I made a chart years ago I didn't have a formula. Back then I couldn't legally listen to almost any song I want like I do now with Grooveshark. Although it would be interesting, I've never used a website that tells me how many times I've listened to songs.

[Deleted]

Yes, I listen to everything soley on iTunes, which tracks your overall plays for each song. At the end of each week I copy-paste my iTunes into Excel, which with a simple formula calculates the difference between this week and last week's play total (=weekly plays), and from there you can set up any formula. Mine takes into account the previous 7 weeks, with gradually lowered weighting given the farther you go back.

I like using a formula, because it gives me a top 40 in 5 minutes of manual work, then I have it linked into a format sheet which I can copy to Pulse. I also love that it takes into account how strong a current week is.

[weaver]

^^ Codex if I had thought of that I'd probably still be doing a chart. I stopped doing it because it was taking too long. I used iTunes to track spins but just converted it to a weekly chart. Basically I had a table in MS Word that I made look pretty, and I manually typed everything in each week. I also kept track of total spins for a track, and awarded "gold" and "platinum" for 50 spins and 100 spins, and multi-platinum for 200, 300, and so on.

It was fun but it took me forever. I would need to look at this week's iTunes spins, and last week's chart for all the #s I needed for calculation. I started to fall weeks behind and finally just scrapped it.

I'd be interested to know your Excel formula...I know how to use excel but never have reason to, so I always sort of forget about it, and forget how to write the formulas properly...

[Rocky]

Got the idea to use iTunes to track the songs from Codex, and he helped to find effective and quick ways of gathering the data and working with it. My current formula is = this week's plays * 0.32 + last week's plays * 0.25 + the week before last week's plays * 0.2 and devide it with 0.77 because it doesn't add up to 100%. Next week will be TW*0.32 + LW*0.25 + LW2*0.2 + LW3*0.15 / 0.92 Then later, the final form will just be W1*0.32 + W2*0.25 + W3*0.2 + W4*0.15 + W5*0.08.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I'd like to use iTunes and my listens to create a chart based on numbers but my listening habits can be pretty sporadic where some weeks I might listen to only full albums (new and older) and others I'll only listen to new singles and then others I might go on a 90s kick and listen to mostly 90s, which would throw the chart off completely. But even still, doing an iTunes-based chart would be interesting.

I've never used a specific formula for my chart. It was always based on how much I perceived myself to like a specific song although it occurred to me about a year or so ago that it's not even how much I *like* a song but rather how much I want to listen to a song. So for example, new singles and songs I consider to be highly anticipated will debut and chart high for me even if I don't particularly *care* for it a whole lot. Katy Perry's Part Of Me I'd consider to be maybe my least favourite of her singles but it debuted in my Top 100 at #4 (it also peaked there) because it was an exciting release. Currently Work Bitch is nearing my Top 10. I don't consider myself *loving* the song but my desire to listen to it is high enough to justify such a placement.

I think this is something an iTunes chart would measure more accurately though. The downside to an iTunes chart is a song I hear a lot but don't necessarily play on my own much. So most of Bruno Mars' singles have minimal plays on my iTunes but I've heard them a ton through the radio which carried them for their chart life on my chart.

[cesarams]

I used one formula for more than one year, but I got tired of it, because sometimes it didn't reflect what I was really listening too. So now I don't use one. But I'm thinking about creating a new one to start using it next year.

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2013 8:43:02 GMT -5 weaver said:

^^ Codex if I had thought of that I'd probably still be doing a chart. I stopped doing it because it was taking too long. I used iTunes to track spins but just converted it to a weekly chart. Basically I had a table in MS Word that I made look pretty, and I manually typed everything in each week. I also kept track of total spins for a track, and awarded "gold" and "platinum" for 50 spins and 100 spins, and multi-platinum for 200, 300, and so on.

It was fun but it took me forever. I would need to look at this week's iTunes spins, and last week's chart for all the #s I needed for calculation. I started to fall weeks behind and finally just scrapped it.

I'd be interested to know your Excel formula...I know how to use excel but never have reason to, so I always sort of forget about it, and forget how to write the formulas properly...

I did the exact same thing back in 2011, lol. I manually reset iTunes and typed in my plays every week into Excel, then made it look pretty in a MS Word table and printscreened it to upload. I think those were my exact certifications too. Then I gave up because it took too long.

My formula is based off the idea that a song should 2% of their plays every day. There might be more accurate way to do this, but I just make them lose 14% at the end of each week.
So

=Sum(A1 + B1*0,86 + C1*0,72 + D1*0,58 + E1*0,44 + F1*0,3 + G1*0,16 + H1*0,02)
with A1 being this week, B1 being last week, etc, H1 being 7 weeks ago.

Fall Down (frontloaded smash example)

Points	33 - 37 - 39 - 33 - 27 - 20 - 16 - 09 - 06 - 06 - 06 - 05 - 03 - 05
Plays	33 - 09 - 07 - 01 - 01 - 01 - 03 - 01 - 00 - 03 - 01 - 00 - 00 - 03

Get Lucky (smash example)

Points	38 - 46 - 39 - 36 - 44 - 36 - 32 - 25 - 21 - 18 - 15 - 10 - 13 - 11 - 12 - 16 - 14 - 12 - 10 - 09 - 09 - 08 - 07
Plays	38 - 13 - 00 - 05 - 15 - 02 - 07 - 04 - 04 - 02 - 03 - 00 - 06 - 01 - 03 - 07 - 02 - 01 - 01 - 02 - 02 - 02 - 01

Blurred Lines (smash example)

Points	27 - 26 - 29 - 29 - 32 - 34 - 27 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 19 - 17 - 14 - 13 - 11 - 09 - 15 - 13 - 10 - 10 - 08 - 06 - 04 - 03
Plays	27 - 03 - 07 - 05 - 09 - 09 - 02 - 02 - 05 - 05 - 06 - 03 - 01 - 02 - 01 - 01 - 09 - 02 - 00 - 02 - 01 - 00 - 00 - 01

[surfy]

Okay, so I'm doing my all-time chart data right now, but I'm having issues, I'm just randomly assigning points based on chart position (not an accurate points system) (that's actually how I'm doing it currently too) And earlier this year is the only time I've ever done something different by factoring in a formula, but that has since been dropped. I would like to do a formula so I can have an accurate year-end/all-time chart that actually represents their chart runs during that time rather than random numbers I just plugged in.

I can't use my iTunes/last.fm data because as previous members have mentioned, my listening data is spotty and doesn't really represent my favorite songs well. So does anyone have any advice for me?

[Au$tin]

For my weekly charts:
([PLAYS IN LAST 3 MONTHS]*0.25)+([PLAYS IN LAST MONTH]*0.45)+([PLAYS IN LAST WEEK]*0.3) = Points!

For my year-end chart (as of this year):
This one is a bit more complicated. I first total up all of the weekly chart points in an Excel spreadsheet. Then in the next column, it's the total number of plays for the tracking period. For example, Artist A's "Song Z" has 319.05 points and was played 76 times in the year. Then I total ALL songs' points and playcounts. The total playcounts divided by the total points gives me a percentage. That perecentage is then multiplied by each song's point total. Then whatever the other percentage is to equal 100% is multiplied by the playcount. That gives me a pretty accurate representation of my personal taste. I have been doing this formula since last summer for the seasonal charts as well.

Here's an example:
Artist A - Song Z 424.80; 66
Artist B - Song Y 408.25; 73
Artist C - Song X 405.80; 68
Artist D - Song W 401.90; 76
Artist E - Song V 398.70; 79
Artist F - Song U 383.35; 80
Artist G - Song T 381.25; 74
Artist H - Song S 377.05; 64
Artist I - Song R 362.70; 62
Artist J - Song Q 358.35; 66

Point Totals: 3902.15
Playcount Totals: 708
708/3902.15 = 18.144% - This means each song's point total will be multiplied by 0.18144
100-18.144 = 81.856% - This means each song's playcount will be multiplied by 0.81856
Those two numbers will be added together to give each song's year-end point total!
This gives us:
Artist A - Song Z 131.101
Artist B - Song Y 133.828
Artist C - Song X 129.290
Artist D - Song W 135.131
Artist E - Song V 137.006
Artist F - Song U 135.040
Artist G - Song T 129.747
Artist H - Song S 120.800
Artist I - Song R 116.559
Artist J - Song Q 119.044

Giving me the top ten as:
1. Artist E - Song V 137.006
2. Artist D - Song W 135.131
3. Artist F - Song U 135.040
4. Artist B - Song Y 133.828
5. Artist A - Song Z 131.101
6. Artist G - Song T 129.747
7. Artist C - Song X 129.290
8. Artist H - Song S 120.800
9. Artist J - Song Q 119.044
10. Artist I - Song R 116.559
Note that neither the song with the highest playcount or the song with the largest amount of total points is the #1 song. The #1 song, though, had the highest total points given my formula, and when I look at this list, I notice that I probably would list "Song V" as my favorite out of the ten. It seems complicated, but it really isn't. It takes little to no time at all.

[Deleted]

I use a formula for my charts. Been experimenting and here's basically how my Jboard 40 is determined: 60% of the points for each song are based on my own personal opinion on the song, 30% is from its Hot 100 rank, and 10% is based off other factors.

[arrowstone]

I use a formula; to calculate the points for a song I use these components:
- How often I listened to the song that week.
- A percentage of the points of the song the week before (to encourage smoother chart movements)
- Position points: when higher, a song will get more points.
- Week points: when longer on the chart, I will subtract points to avoid getting a stagnant chart.