Zazie
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Post by Zazie on Feb 26, 2015 19:45:07 GMT -5
The song's up 650k on MB if you add up the Mon-Wed chart dates, which correspond with the first 3 days of the Billboard chart week. Maybe this got some publicity that I don't know about, but it does seem to be making its move, and just in time. If it finishes the week as strongly as it started it, the song might crack the top 30 on next week's Billboard chart. And adding more than a million in audience might be a sign that country radio, however risk-averse they continually show themselves to be, might be ready for this to peak much higher than the #31 it might have.
Such a pleasure to hear this song.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Feb 27, 2015 16:55:10 GMT -5
The song's up 650k on MB if you add up the Mon-Wed chart dates, which correspond with the first 3 days of the Billboard chart week. Maybe this got some publicity that I don't know about, but it does seem to be making its move, and just in time. If it finishes the week as strongly as it started it, the song might crack the top 30 on next week's Billboard chart. And adding more than a million in audience might be a sign that country radio, however risk-averse they continually show themselves to be, might be ready for this to peak much higher than the #31 it might have. Such a pleasure to hear this song. Good news Zazie, "Girl Crush" is up 900k on MB since Sunday with 156k of it coming today. It has increased 92 spins over that time as well. After remaining pretty much idle in audience for a month, this song now has accumulated 1.2 million in audience the past 12 says - nothing too amazing but compared to how it was preforming before that, it's a welcome sight. 10 big adds this week too, with 8 of the 10 being Cumulus or iHeartMedia owned stations. I still will throw caution out there since I do believe that radio as a whole finds this one too polarizing (with that 3-4 week stretch as troubling proof) and therefore it may still reach a limit of its peak but these past 10-12 days are promising. Right now "Girl Crush" is at #36 on the rolling chart. Luke and Lady A will be going recurrent along with Toby falling below them as well by Sunday so that would put them at #33 currently. But Kip and Carrie are very close behind LBT and I suspect one, if not both will leap them by the Sunday evening update.
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LBTrocks
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Post by LBTrocks on Feb 28, 2015 17:41:14 GMT -5
Where's the music video? It was apparently made a long time ago. It seems to take LBT longer than average to get their music video's out. Wonder why? Anyway, it's high time it's released. I'm starting to think by the time we see it, the song won't be current anymore lol. This is LBT so I really want it to do well, but at the same time I don't exactly want this to be LBT's signature song. I think it's one of their weakest, actually. The vocal arrangement is great and Karen's singing and the harmonies are beautiful, but I still think the lyrics are bad and the instrumentation is greatly lacking. I have been hearing this quite a bit on the radio and even though it was in a slump before, I still wasn't counting it out at that point. And it looks like it still has life left to live. I don't think it will be a huge hit for them like "Pontoon" and "Tornado" was, but I still think it has a chance of peaking at a decent number. With that said, I'm already patiently waiting for the next single lol. I know many think "Quit Breaking Up With Me" should be released next and while I do love the song, I really, really want "Tumble and Fall" to get released, at least at some point. It's an excellent song and (to my ears) it sounds very radio friendly. If I had my choice, "Faster Gun," "Save Your Sin," and "Turn The Lights On" would all be released because they're my 3 favorite songs from the album and actually 3 of my favorite LBT songs ever. I understand none are likely to be released though as they'd all simply be "too much" for country radio to handle.
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Zazie
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Post by Zazie on Feb 28, 2015 19:16:16 GMT -5
It sure would be nice for this song to hit the top 30 on the BB chart this coming week -- it's possible but only if it finishes ahead of Rascal Flatts and Gloriana. One of those is reasonable to expect, the other not so much.
The only reason I care about top 30 on BB is my hope that a few radio programmers would pay attention to the move, and think it was less of a risk to spin this song a few times on his station. Country radio is so risk-averse, and I'm thinking a nice +5 jump would be nice to see. Top 30 is not possible this week on MB, I realize that. Maybe the week after? That would add countdown spins so it would also be a good outcome.
With Carrie's and FlaGa's songs gaining well, I want LBT to make the top 30 this week and not wait until they're passed by too many other songs. Falling behind Kip Moore is inevitable this week; nothing to be done about that.
The order of the songs in this range of both charts tends to be different from MB to BB.
At least my request for a strong week this week has been granted by the powers-that-be. I'm sure they're eagerly awaiting more instruction from me in the coming weeks, lol.
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Mar 1, 2015 13:01:37 GMT -5
Isn't this top 5 at iTunes among country songs? Radio needs to take note.
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monster50
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Post by monster50 on Mar 1, 2015 17:19:23 GMT -5
i just discovered this song about two weeks ago, after the second or third listen I paid attention and go it, loved it and thought it was going to be a big hit, but then I found out it was released in December, I am not sure if this is just taking off or dying, but i think if radio keeps on supporting it, it will take off, this could play in other formats as well.
Anyhow I hope it catches fire.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2015 17:58:08 GMT -5
The fact that this was released in December alone isn't enough to make its slow chart run odd, but the sales are just through the roof, which is especially impressive in a period where country singles aren't quite selling how they used to on iTunes, so that's why I'm really confused here.
This week we had a lot of songs falling on the chart, so just about everything that is still being pushed/climbing had a week of decent gains, but even with the clean-out, I am seeing a smaller 7-day spins bullet on Mediabase for "Girl Crush" than most songs around it. This has gained 1.362 million audience impressions and 166 spins on Mediabase, which ranks it as the 32nd highest bullet on the 50-space chart, higher than only ten songs that are still climbing. I could be reading too much into this and being nit-picky, but I was expecting a bit more of a burst of radio momentum following the huge sales spike this week. That being said, I am still confident there's more life in this and maybe LBT can make a slow and steady run into the top 10 (which is still way less than what this deserves, but I'll take it).
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monster50
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Post by monster50 on Mar 1, 2015 22:00:25 GMT -5
If that was just a performance on Ellen that pushed this way up the iTunes chart, that's pretty impressive. I hope they do jimmy Fallon or another televised performance to keep the sales steady. I'm going to like watching this.
I don't think radio will ignore sales
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Zazie
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Post by Zazie on Mar 2, 2015 9:42:17 GMT -5
But radio is broadcasting and sales are narrowcasting. When you download a song, you don't have to worry about whether you are going to be upset with yourself for buying it. You are you, so you buy whatever song you like. Unless you're down to your last dollar, you can get whatever you want.
Radio, on the other hand, may be sure that a lot of people like Girl Crush but still may not be willing to spin it. They may worry about what will happen during the spin of such a risky, different song. They may think they'll lose audiences to a button-push and might not get them back from their competition for an hour or more.
If you ask me, radio has gotten way too conservative (in the sense of risk-averse, not intended as a political reference at all). It's hard for me to remember -- I feel like I'm making it up -- that country radio not that long ago played songs by Mary-Chapin Carpenter and Daryle Singletary, and I can list 20 others from a list of 60 that rattles around in my head -- men and women, solos and groups. Now they want to play music that's safe, because they're overanalyzing their audiences and for a host of money-related reasons that other Pulse posters can write about better than I can. But just because I think they're too conservative doesn't mean they will change anytime soon. (I should probably be happy that they at least play Keith Urban. They could eliminate him too, like they've done with others. I'm greedy, so I hope for a day they play Jamey Johnson and Chris Stapleton, not to mention Kacey Musgraves, Sunny Sweeney, and Brandy Clark.)
If you're in a cocoon in which your peers are all playing it musically safe and you are doing it too, you aren't likely to spin Girl Crush. And until you get reports that a very high percentage of your targeted demographic has bought it and never stops playing it, you're going to postpone playing it and relegate it to a few spins a day and do whatever you can to avoid looking bad when the numbers come out. Play FlaGa and Luke and Blake more and more spins-per-day, but don't take chances. That's the ethos today.
I'm not trying to oversimplify this, I'm just trying to be brief in making the case that you cannot expect sales numbers for "different-sounding" songs to translate. This is the result of a generation of playing it safe -- these programmers don't even realize they're doing it. They didn't have their jobs in 1998. And they're not going to play Girl Crush, at least not 6 times a day, just because it sells.
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Mar 2, 2015 10:56:45 GMT -5
Radio is not only way too conservative, but way too political.
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monster50
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Post by monster50 on Mar 24, 2015 19:10:07 GMT -5
I still can't understand how country music stations are ignoring this song, The digital sales are pretty impressive, especially considering the lack of radio support. Also too bad they didn't do a proper video for this, the story wuld have been perfect for a three minute video
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2015 19:21:54 GMT -5
I still can't understand how country music stations are ignoring this song, The digital sales are pretty impressive, especially considering the lack of radio support. Also too bad they didn't do a proper video for this, the story wuld have been perfect for a three minute video Actually there will be a video coming--they filmed it a couple of months ago ( avalyn posted about it on the previous page in this thread). I think it's actually a pretty smart idea that they have held off on releasing the video for a little bit. Sales are already good, and once the video is released, that will bring a big second wave of buzz to such a strong-selling song. The song is only 15 weeks old and while it's not on pace to be a top 10 hit, I think it can still get into the 20's and if it catches a 2nd wind (which they are probably hoping will happen once the video is out), then it could perhaps peak somewhere in the teens before all is said and done. It's just gonna be a slow ride to get there.
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monster50
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Post by monster50 on Mar 24, 2015 21:49:54 GMT -5
well that changes things a little bit. I hope they release the video soon and do a performance. I assumed they were done promoting and this was going to die, which it still may.
Out of curiosity was this song looked over for any award nominations or was it not eligible?
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dm2081
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Post by dm2081 on Mar 24, 2015 22:00:36 GMT -5
I don't know how much longer radio can continue to overlook this song. It's currently at #40 on the all-genre iTunes chart! That's amazing with the little airplay it has received so far. Country radio is only shooting itself in the foot by not playing this one. Will there be a few thousand people who don't like this song because there too ignorant to look up the true meaning of this song, and assume it is about lesbianism? Sure. But should that minority group prevent the 10x more audience listeners who really love this song? It's seem quite evident that this song has the opportunity to reach outside of the genre to those in the Pop realm, just like Sam Hunt currently is. This is a huge chance that isn't being taken, and every week this song isn't at least receiving mid-level airplay (20 million in audience), an opportunity to showcase just how amazing and diverse the Country genre can be is thrown out the window.
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matty005
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Post by matty005 on Mar 24, 2015 22:05:01 GMT -5
I don't know how much longer radio can continue to overlook this song. It's currently at #40 on the all-genre iTunes chart! That's amazing with the little airplay it has received so far. Country radio is only shooting itself in the foot by not playing this one. Will there be a few thousand people who don't like this song because there too ignorant to look up the true meaning of this song, and assume it is about lesbianism? Sure. But should that minority group prevent the 10x more audience listeners who really love this song. It's seem quite evident that this song has the opportunity to reach outside of the genre to those in the Pop realm, just like Sam Hunt currently is. This is a huge chance that isn't being taken, and every week this song isn't at least receiving mid-level airplay (20 million in audience), an opportunity to showcase just how amazing and diverse the Country genre can be is thrown out the window. Even if it was about an actual, "Girl Crush" those people would still be ignorant for making a stink about it.
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Post by Daryl the Beryl on Mar 24, 2015 22:22:09 GMT -5
This is shockingly moving too slowly for a song that's selling very well.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 24, 2015 22:57:49 GMT -5
First of all, I agree with all of those who say this should be moving faster since its sales are staggering - in a good way. Really, since the new year, "Girl Crush" has consistently been among the sales leaders for country singles, and I myself pointed out a few weeks ago how incredulous it is that radio is not giving LBT's song it's just do.
But I will say that the other side of this, is this is still the airplay chart. Now obviously songs that have sold very well, that don't have what can be perceived as controversial lyrics (not really IMO), have gone on to break it big at radio because radio has seen the fan reaction. But this might have to do with fans themselves, who listen to said radio stations giving direct negative feedback on "Girl Crush". Now I'm not saying that there are more of those people than are buying the song, cause I do believe the amount of folks who aren't bothered by this song out number those who are bothered by it, but let's say a particular radio station had to make a decision about who to accommodate? - people who are bothered and call/email/tweet the station with their displeasure, or some who haven't had direct contact with said station, who are buying "Girl Crush". Probably the ones who are listening to your station and are sending direct feedback.
Again, I must stress I don't at all agree with the decisions made by radio here, and I do think anyone who is bothered by this song's lyrics is just not listening to the actual subject of its lyrics, but this may be why "Girl Crush" is having such a difficult time. In the end though, the sales and nationwide reaction should be enough to outweigh any push back my some put off listeners.
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Mar 24, 2015 23:05:29 GMT -5
Look, we all know country radio sucks. I've stopped paying attention to it. I'm celebrating the great "Girl Crush" being the #5 country song at iTunes.
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avalyn
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Post by avalyn on Mar 25, 2015 2:03:27 GMT -5
Karen and Kimberly were on Bobby Bones last week for St Patricks day and Bobby flat out asked them if they were frustrated by the treatment radio has given the song. Karen jumped right in and said that she was. She more or less mentioned that even if it was a lesbian song, it shouldn't matter. That this song is a modern day Jolene and about jealousy and how people should listen to the words. It was mentioned that if radio can play drinking songs as much as they do, they should be able to play this song since there is nothing offensive about it. Bobby went on a rant about it all and then played the song two times while they were in - one going to commericials and once going back. He basically said that he would probably get in trouble for that rant and going against his kind but he was frustrated for them having a top five downloaded song vs where they were on the chart. He might not be the most likable dj/morning show host but you got to give it to him when it comes to being vocal about the crap radio does and how they treat songs like Girl Crush. www.bobbybones.com/media/podcast-the-bobby-bones-show-highlights-ShowHighlights/317-little-big-town-talk-girl-25893790/
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rjz
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Post by rjz on Mar 25, 2015 6:12:23 GMT -5
Karen and Kimberly were on Bobby Bones last week for St Patricks day and Bobby flat out asked them if they were frustrated by the treatment radio has given the song. Karen jumped right in and said that she was. She more or less mentioned that even if it was a lesbian song, it shouldn't matter. That this song is a modern day Jolene and about jealousy and how people should listen to the words. It was mentioned that if radio can play drinking songs as much as they do, they should be able to play this song since there is nothing offensive about it. Bobby went on a rant about it all and then played the song two times while they were in - one going to commericials and once going back. He basically said that he would probably get in trouble for that rant and going against his kind but he was frustrated for them having a top five downloaded song vs where they were on the chart. He might not be the most likable dj/morning show host but you got to give it to him when it comes to being vocal about the crap radio does and how they treat songs like Girl Crush. www.bobbybones.com/media/podcast-the-bobby-bones-show-highlights-ShowHighlights/317-little-big-town-talk-girl-25893790/ Ok, Bobby Bones annoys the heck out of me-I really don't like the obnoxious guy; but this warms me up to him just a wee bit
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Mar 25, 2015 9:00:18 GMT -5
Great performance on Fallon's show last night. I hope it helps downloads even more. Is the song close to Gold at all?
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onebuffalo
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Post by onebuffalo on Mar 25, 2015 9:08:30 GMT -5
Great performance on Fallon's show last night. I hope it helps downloads even more. Is the song close to Gold at all? 245,000 so far. Halfway there!
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Mar 25, 2015 9:10:48 GMT -5
It's currently top 30 at iTunes!
I'm assuming they will perform it on the ACM Awards, too, which will give it a boost.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2015 9:41:50 GMT -5
I was listening to the radio the other day (can't remember if it was KMLE or KNIX) and "Girl Crush" came on in the afternoon, and after it was done, the DJ deliberately went out of her way to explain what this song was about. All I could think about was, wow, radio has really dumbed down their listeners. It's not that hard of a concept to grasp. This is a beautifully-written song that conveys actual human emotion. As much as I wish the sales performance were leading to a better performance at radio, I have to go back to Zazie's extremely well-written post from about 3 weeks ago. Radio is all about playing it so safe these days. They can see exactly what their crosstown rival is playing and when (I know this from talking to Tim Richards, the PD of KMLE here), and so it's pretty hilarious to me that KNIX and KMLE will often play "Girl Crush" or "Little Red Wagon" at almost the exact same time. They do this because they are worried about tune-out with their listeners, so if they see that the rival station has programmed "Girl Crush" into the 3:32pm time slot, then they might decide to spin it then as well, that way the listeners that do switch the station are stuck with the same song on both stations. They don't do this all the time, but I do notice it happening on occasion, especially when it comes to songs that are a little more "out there" as compared to the more typical radio fare. The bottom line is, if there's a song that has maybe a 25% chance of being polarizing as opposed to only a 12% chance, then radio looks at playing that song as a risk.
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jrb56
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Post by jrb56 on Mar 25, 2015 10:34:47 GMT -5
Link to Washington Post artical conserning LBT's GC Post Article
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Post by countrygirl918 on Mar 25, 2015 11:28:30 GMT -5
Also, here's the original For the Country Record article that spurred the Washington Post article: forthecountryrecord.com/2015/03/21/little-big-towns-girl-crush-and-the-close-minded-complaints-that-have-forced-it-into-low-rotation/I've also seen so many tweets from artists and songwriters defending "Girl Crush". It's great to see the conversation about the problems with today's country radio climate getting louder and louder. It's about more than just bro-country over-saturation now; it's about the choices of the past few years watering down the listening audience so much that now any song that takes risks with its subject matter struggles to get played. And now we're finally starting to see more mainstream backlash about where country radio has ended up. I really do hope we're coming to a turning point, because I'd like to listen to country radio again. It's not even as bad here in Canada as it is in the US, but I can't listen to my local country station for more than 10-15 minutes these days, and I used to listed to it all the time.
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.indulgecountry
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Post by .indulgecountry on Mar 25, 2015 11:40:18 GMT -5
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 25, 2015 14:26:16 GMT -5
Radio stations are really in the business of pleasing the people who are responsible for keeping their ratings high and viable. It's just like any business that gets caught up in controversy, whether it's right or not, and in this case it's obviously wrong. This part of the Washington Post article really drove home the point I was trying to make a few posts up. Radio is just trying to not step on the toes of their consumers here. I said it before, but radio takes more notice from direct contact with a listener/fan, rather than anonymous ones who are sending "Girl Crush" near the top of the iTunes charts. It's really unfortunate to see happen and it's a situation that we don't see too often which jhomes87 said in her post. I think this is now getting some mass exposure though, which is always a good thing in today's society. A nationally syndicated radio show and a well known newspaper have now brought the attention of "Girl Crush's" struggles to the spotlight and have singled out why this song is being deemed too polarizing, which we have speculated here for some time. I commend Capitol and LBT for taking a risk with this song. Too often single choices are play it safe, and this wasn't. The narrow mindedness of people who don't know what the song's about is so frustrating, but at least this can be the start of some positive in terms of bringing the issue to the forefront. "Girl Crush" lost 44 spins today and is down 62 for the week, and has accumulated just .004k in total audience the past four days. I don't see this one reaching the top 20 if this continues.
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carriekins
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Post by carriekins on Mar 25, 2015 14:41:29 GMT -5
Radio just needs to grow a pair. This is ridiculous, and I'm not even in the "omg this is the best song ever" camp.
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sabre14
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Post by sabre14 on Mar 25, 2015 14:50:36 GMT -5
Radio just needs to grow a pair. This is ridiculous, and I'm not even in the "omg this is the best song ever" camp. It's all about money and unfortunately, radio doesn't want this much negative feedback. It's just like any other business model. Higher ups never have the guts to weather the storm of controversy since that usually comes with boycotts and bad publicity. The voice of the upset always outweighs the voice of the happy, even if the ones who are happy outnumber those who are upset. I agree though, it really is ridiculous it has to be that way.
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