Billboard Hot 100: 04/14/12

[HolidayGuy]

With iTunes reportedly not using pop bars any longer and Billboard adding On-Demand info, is there a concentrated effort to make it somewhat more difficult for chartwatchers to predict the upper tier of the Hot 100 (and the chart in general)? If so, I'm all for it.

[Deleted]

^I think that helps billboard further hold their monopoly on the chart business.

(Also opens up more potential for unchecked chart rigging.)

[Deleted]

Apr 5, 2012 12:00:41 GMT -5 imbondz said:

Your single sells more than GOLD in a week, and you're not #1. DUMB.

Unless the song that beats you still sells a ton, is way ahead in airplay and has more streams

[HolidayGuy]

I'm sure Billboard is aware of potential on-demand "abuse" by crazy fans or the like. With technology as it is, there has to be some sort of filter, no?

[Deleted]

A single "crazy fan" is unlikely to have any sort of impact

The filters probably target larger groups or geographic areas

[ListenToItTwice]

^ I think if the same song is played by the same user a ridiculous number of times in a row by the same user, it should be filtered out. And I don't think that'd be hard to do.

[Deleted]

Maybe if said "crazy fan" had 12 laptops all linked to the same song and sat there all day running continuous streams. (Why would someone do that? )

Anyway, 1 person on one computer would not amount to a significant impact even if "crazy fan" sits there all day with the same song on auto-repeat (Again, why would someone do that?)

[Deleted]

Apr 5, 2012 12:22:24 GMT -5 @2m said:

Maybe if said "crazy fan" had 12 laptops all linked to the same song and sat there all day running continuous streams. (Why would someone do that? )

Anyway, 1 person on one computer would not amount to a significant impact even if "crazy fan" sits there all day with the same song on auto-repeat (Again, why would someone do that?)

Baby has 700 million views for a reason.

[HolidayGuy]

Yah- that's why I don't pay much mind to YouTube views.

[popstop]

I have access to ten unused computers at work. I am going to turn off the volume and set them all to repeat Gotye 24/7.

(kidding)

[Deleted]

By "unchecked chart rigging"; I meant on Billboard's side; not on the consumer side.

[Keelzit]

They change the rules more often than Rihanna changes her hair. From now on, I'll only take into consideration the digital chart.

[Deleted]

Apr 5, 2012 12:26:54 GMT -5 Codex said:

Apr 5, 2012 12:22:24 GMT -5 @2m said:

Maybe if said "crazy fan" had 12 laptops all linked to the same song and sat there all day running continuous streams. (Why would someone do that? )

Anyway, 1 person on one computer would not amount to a significant impact even if "crazy fan" sits there all day with the same song on auto-repeat (Again, why would someone do that?)

Baby has 700 million views for a reason.

Not all in a week and probably by more than one person

[ListenToItTwice]

^ Nonetheless, it's proof that online streaming is not necessarily a perfect indication of what's really most popular in music at the moment. "Baby" is the biggest hit in YouTube history, but is by no means one of the biggest smashes of the past five years.

[Deleted]

It is the biggest hit by that medium though

Online streaming is a component of popularity NOT THE component of popularity

[Fat Ass Kelly Price]

Baby was a poP culture phenomenon.

[gracelessheart]

Apr 5, 2012 12:37:41 GMT -5 popstop said:

I have access to ten unused computers at work. I am going to turn off the volume and set them all to repeat Gotye 24/7.

(kidding)

I'd be okay with that, lol. I'm currently crushing on this song hardcore.

[newpower]

Boyfriend was available in Rhapsody almost right away... So it's not like it didn't get any steaming points.

[Deleted]

Apr 5, 2012 12:03:03 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

With iTunes reportedly not using pop bars any longer and Billboard adding On-Demand info, is there a concentrated effort to make it somewhat more difficult for chartwatchers to predict the upper tier of the Hot 100 (and the chart in general)? If so, I'm all for it.

Once you give up something it makes it very hard to reclaim it without many getting upset. I.e., after years of having a transparent methodology, people are not going to take kindly to them trying to obfuscate the process again. And this is something BB should have considered carefully before making their formula(s) known. I honestly don't blame people for being upset about them trying to be so secretive about it b/c it does seem suspect, no matter what their intentions actually are.

I can't be bothered to be upset about it, but I've long been one who places more importance on the sales charts than anything else. I think it's hard to say either of those is quite equal to someone liking a song so much s/he is actually willing to pay specifically for that song (and the label almost surely makes more money from a single purchase than it does from one stream or play on radio, hence why I strongly disagree with the sales part of the Hot 100 equation being less than normal to accommodate streaming; if anything radio is what should have been decreased).

[imbondz]

Apr 4, 2012 22:42:55 GMT -5 @peigan68 said:

Apr 4, 2012 21:33:47 GMT -5 jebsib said:

No one ever knew their chart methodology until the 1990s when they lifted the curtain on ratios, piece-counts, impressions, etc in their chart columns. Hell, most people thought the Hot 100 was sales-based only in the early 70s when Casey Kasem would announce it as such. So us not knowing their exact formula is nothing that new. In fact, as a professional business, why do we need to know? Mostly because it helps us forecast our weekly hobby. I'm sure that key members of the music industry have vetted this new methodology and are satisfied with it.

BB can't win. First they're too late adopting all formats into the Hot 100, then they're too late integrating airplay only songs, now - in the face of an industry changing every year with new technologies - they've 'got the weighting of streaming wrong'. I'm sure the heads of Columbia, RCA or whatever major label is cool with all of this...

LOL I can still remember when finding out what was the #1 song on the Hot 100 consisted of waiting until Tuesday morning (and sometimes longer), the WEEK of the chart and going down to the news/magazine store in the town where I grew up, and flipping through the magazine, finding the Hot 100 chart and looking at the top of it.

Long before computerized point of sale, airplay impressions and streaming statistics ever came into effect.

And I had to look as quickly as I could because the shop owner would start giving me funny looks if I took too long looking through the magazine. You see it was too expensive for me to buy at the time. ;)

I can't even imagine how some of the younger chart watchers we have now would react if they had to wait THAT long to find out what was on the new Billboard charts.

ha. that's my experience too. there was nothing better than going to the store when Billboard magazine arrived. I couldn't afford it every week, so I would spend hours in the store reading it. My newspaper used to release a top 10 before the magazine came out, so I would get psyched to see that before the whole charts. wow how things have changed.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Haha. I know what you guys mean...kinda. I had to wait for Casey's Top 40 to hear the chart and even then it was the R&R one, which was what I grew up with. I was always confused the rare time I heard Billboard referenced because I would think.... Wait a minute. That song isn't even in the Top 10. Why is it being called #1?

Then I got the Internet and could get the Top 30 a week before on Friday. How exciting that was.

[jebsib]

I'll never forget the Fall of 1996 when I discovered that they published the top 50 if the Hot 100 on the Thursday 9 days before the issue date. How was that possible?? I had spent 16 years having to wait until the following Tuesday! It was fantastic.

[bat1990]

Apr 5, 2012 9:47:04 GMT -5 badrobot said:

I don't even have any songs in my iTunes library that have hit 100 plays total, over 1.5 years, let alone 200.

"Mirrors" by Natalia Kills is the only song in my iTunes library that has broken 100 plays. "Time Machine" by Robyn is second somewhere in the 80s.

[HolidayGuy]

I used to listen to American Top 40 weekly as a kid (circa 1983-1984) and writing down the top 40. I didn't see a Billboard magazine until 1990- from then on, I got BB frequently. When I was in college, I used to await the top 10 on CNN's Showbiz Today. I remember being stunned to see "Erotica" drop from 3 to 5, when it looked like a surefire No. 1. (I also recall going to the newstand by my college and looking at Billboard each week (sometimes buying it) to see the action on the rest of the Hot 100.

[renfield75]

Apr 5, 2012 22:17:03 GMT -5 HolidayGuy said:

I used to listen to American Top 40 weekly as a kid (circa 1983-1984) and writing down the top 40. I didn't see a Billboard magazine until 1990- from then on, I got BB frequently. When I was in college, I used to await the top 10 on CNN's Showbiz Today. I remember being stunned to see "Erotica" drop from 3 to 5, when it looked like a surefire No. 1. (I also recall going to the newstand by my college and looking at Billboard each week (sometimes buying it) to see the action on the rest of the Hot 100.

I love these stories from other old-school chart watchers. Every Friday morning before school (circa 1990-91) I would check our newspaper for next week's top ten. To keep the anticipation going I would cover everything except number ten with a piece of paper and slowly reveal each track until I got to number one. My dad was the editor of the paper and I would make him print out the top twenty Billboard sent (since the paper only carried the top ten) and bring it home with him on Friday nights. I still have a stack of those early 90s printouts at my mom's house. Like jebsib, once I discovered billboardonline.com ('memba that?) I thought "This is too good to be true!!!" Ahh, memories...

[divasummer]

I don't even know what made me pick up Billboad when I was 10 years old.
It must of been at eye level or something.
I was hooked right then and there when I saw my favorite singer Donna Summer had a song on the RnB/Black chart.
Then I started riding my bike everyweek to read it.
I actually still have a subscrption to it.

[gracelessheart]

I love reading stories about people discovering the charts on here. So cool. I get made fun of for being a chart geek, but I have been for years. I was always a sponge for information about music, even music I didn't listen to. Maybe it was all that Pop-Up Video and other VH1 programming I saw as a kid that got me interested.

[badrobot]

I started following the charts in 1994/95 to see how Madonna's "Bedtime Stories" album was doing, which was actually the first CD I ever got (well, one of 4 I got for Christmas 1994 -- along with the Cranberries, Soundgarden, and REM). We had a "chart digest" that came out about 1-2 weeks after the numbers were first published, and included commentary and lots of component charts. There was no way to know how a song would do the next week outside of a sense of momentum and educated guessing. You were also incredibly lucky if you got any actual sales/airplay figures, as those only appeared if they were particularly noteworthy (say, a debut week or a close race).

Keith Caulfield was on that list too, and I still distinctly remember how bummed he (and all of us) were when Bedtime Story became Madonna's first song to miss the top 40 (aside from Everybody, of course). I don't know when he actually started at Billboard but he definitely was destined to work at a company like that!

[Deleted]

I used to go to the bookstore whenever I got the chance and read the charts in the back of Billboard magazine. I wanted so badly to get a subscription but never could afford it so I had to settle for looking at the r&b/hip-hop charts that were always in the back of Jet magazine You can imagine how close my brain came to exploding when I went to college and discovered the joys of uninhibited internet access

And I lived for all the weekend countdown shows - AT40, Rick Dees, Walt Babylove (r&b). I slowly drifted from that when I went to college and now I don't know if I could sit through an entire countdown. Seacrest just doesn't have the same hold on me that Casey Kasem did.

[HolidayGuy]

Yes, br- I recall going to the newsstand, picking up Billboard and seeing "Bedtime Story" dropped from 42-54 and being a little bummed. haha (Shouldn't have been a surprise, given the track, though- so not radio material).

reinfeld, I also did something like that on Sundays- the New York Newsday used to publish the top 25 singles and albums in New York during the 90s, and list the national ranking to the right- that's who I got some early Billboard positions, before seeing the actual magazine. :)