badrobot
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Post by badrobot on Dec 7, 2012 11:16:49 GMT -5
In recent years, Billboard has more explicitly stated that they do not consider themselves industry-only and are indeed focused at the general public as well. I used to say forever "this is for the industry" but then BB changed its tune and that shut me up.
I do think that from 2005-2011 the Hot 100 was the best representation of popularity that it could be based on what data was available, and they were doing a great job.
I think it was smart to start including on-demand streaming this year, unfortunately I think their overall reformulation was misbalanced. Airplay inherently favors "middle-of-the-road" songs so you don't change the station, while sales and streaming are more likely to give weight to songs that may be more divisive, but that people are more passionate about. Maroon 5 vs Psy is a perfect example of that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2012 11:21:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree with that. I've heard both "Billboard is meant to measure the most popular song; so if a song is getting massive cross-format airplay that deserves greater weight!" but then also had the whole "Gangnam Style can't be played too heavily by the radio even if it is the most requested song because it also gets the most people to switch the station; it's radio's job to play the most agreeable song, not the most popular/requested song!" Which is fine for radio, but makes it have a clear disconnect with Billboard if Billboard is really about measuring the most popular song as opposed to the most agreeable one.
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fridayteenage
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Post by fridayteenage on Dec 14, 2012 14:11:18 GMT -5
2006+, lowest digital charters during a week they were #1: #8 Diamonds
#9 Only Girl
Interesting, since people thought that One More Night's reign was ridiculous when it was T5 the whole time it reigned.
Why Rihanna seems to be the best at ruling Billboard with relatively low sales...I guess it's a testament to just how much radio stations love her.
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Post by Push The Button on Dec 14, 2012 14:35:26 GMT -5
2006+, lowest digital charters during a week they were #1: #8 Diamonds #9 Only Girl Interesting, since people thought that One More Night's reign was ridiculous when it was T5 the whole time it reigned. Why Rihanna seems to be the best at ruling Billboard with relatively low sales...I guess it's a testament to just how much radio stations love her. I believe I said a couple of months ago - "Radio is going to play Rihanna whether you like it or not." |
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nighttime
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Post by nighttime on Dec 14, 2012 15:08:42 GMT -5
2006+, lowest digital charters during a week they were #1: #8 Diamonds #9 Only Girl Interesting, since people thought that One More Night's reign was ridiculous when it was T5 the whole time it reigned. Why Rihanna seems to be the best at ruling Billboard with relatively low sales...I guess it's a testament to just how much radio stations love her. Rihanna's "Diamonds" was #1 and #2 on the digital chart the first two weeks it hit #1 on the Hot 100 respectively . It dropped to #8 the week of the album release, sales possibly diminished by complete-my-album, but then returned to #2 the following. There's little to criticize about that chart-run. |
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crystalphnx
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Post by crystalphnx on Dec 14, 2012 15:10:03 GMT -5
2006+, lowest digital charters during a week they were #1: #8 Diamonds #9 Only Girl Interesting, since people thought that One More Night's reign was ridiculous when it was T5 the whole time it reigned. Why Rihanna seems to be the best at ruling Billboard with relatively low sales...I guess it's a testament to just how much radio stations love her. There's no doubt that US radio loves Rihanna, but just because her digital sales don't peak at the exact same time her airplay peaks doesn't mean she isn't a strong seller too. SOS = #7 Airplay/#1 Sales Umbrella = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Take A Bow = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Disturbia = #4 Airplay/#1 Sales Rude Boy = #1 Airplay/#2 Sales Only Girl = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales What’s My Name? = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales S&M = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales We Found Love = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Diamonds = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Live Your Life = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Love The Way You Lie = #1 Airplay/#1 Sales Her only Hot 100 No. 1 to miss No. 1 on Hot Digial Songs is "Rude Boy", whereas 2 of her Hot 100 No. 1's never topped Hot 100 Airplay. Radio also completely ignored "Rockstar 101" and "California King Bed", despite both going Top 40 on Digital Songs. Of course, the opposite happens too, when radio is still playing a song to death long after people stopped buying it, but that certainly doesn't only apply to Rihanna. What frustrated me about "Gangnam Style" VS "One More Night" was DJ's/Program Directors reluctance to play a song just because a fraction of their listeners didn't like it, despite it being such a massive seller and viral/cultural phenomenon. I don't think any of us have the exact numbers of how many people called in to complain about GS, and I'm sure stations did receive some calls from people who really hated that song...but I find it hard to believe that hasn't happened with other radio smashes too (no one called in to complain about "Call Me Maybe"? "Sexy And I Know It"?). I believe the fact that it was a primarily non-English song played a role in both listeners being more eager to call to complain and DJ's/PD's willingness to ignore it when it was the best-selling song in the country. |
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fridayteenage
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Post by fridayteenage on Dec 14, 2012 15:38:16 GMT -5
2006+, lowest digital charters during a week they were #1: #8 Diamonds #9 Only Girl Interesting, since people thought that One More Night's reign was ridiculous when it was T5 the whole time it reigned. Why Rihanna seems to be the best at ruling Billboard with relatively low sales...I guess it's a testament to just how much radio stations love her. Rihanna's "Diamonds" was #1 and #2 on the digital chart the first two weeks it hit #1 on the Hot 100 respectively . It dropped to #8 the week of the album release, sales possibly diminished by complete-my-album, but then returned to #2 the following. There's little to criticize about that chart-run. No...it went up 3% the week of the album release. It dropped to #8 the week AFTER the album release. Then went back up last week because of Victoria's Secret. |
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Au$tin
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Post by Au$tin on Dec 14, 2012 16:59:09 GMT -5
Radio also completely ignored "Rockstar 101" and "California King Bed", despite both going Top 40 on Digital Songs. I agree with your post, minus this little sentence here. "Rockstar 101" was a complete flop by anyone's standard. "California King Bed," however, managed to get to number 71 on Radio Songs. "Rockstar 101" never even came close to debuting there. "California" also made it to the top 20 on CHR. "Rockstar" couldn't even crack the top 50. So radio did almost completely ignore "Rockstar 101," but "California King Bed" did have its tiny moment in the Sun there. |
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Dec 14, 2012 17:11:20 GMT -5
She does often peak high, but the overall digital totals for her songs are low when considering how much radio plays them and considering her relatively low album sales (i.e. if people were opting to purchase the album then the lower digital sales would make sense).
Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha, etc. sell more of their songs, no?
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crystalphnx
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Post by crystalphnx on Dec 14, 2012 18:04:14 GMT -5
Radio also completely ignored "Rockstar 101" and "California King Bed", despite both going Top 40 on Digital Songs. I agree with your post, minus this little sentence here. "Rockstar 101" was a complete flop by anyone's standard. "California King Bed," however, managed to get to number 71 on Radio Songs. "Rockstar 101" never even came close to debuting there. "California" also made it to the top 20 on CHR. "Rockstar" couldn't even crack the top 50. So radio did almost completely ignore "Rockstar 101," but "California King Bed" did have its tiny moment in the Sun there. touché, touché. No. 71 isn't completely ignored, so I could have phrased that better, but it was a very dramatic drop-off after three straight Airplay No. 1's. I think my larger point still applies, though: it's misguided to suggest Rihanna's singles are guaranteed to smash at radio. she rarely bombs as badly as she did with RS101, but she's missed the Airplay Top 20 almost as many times as she's gone to No. 1. (I'm speaking in terms of her Hot 100 Airplay history, since I'm not as familiar with her history on Pop radio, so my point might be less applicable if we look strictly at pop.) She does often peak high, but the overall digital totals for her songs are low when considering how much radio plays them and considering her relatively low album sales (i.e. if people were opting to purchase the album then the lower digital sales would make sense). Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, Ke$ha, etc. sell more of their songs, no? you bring up a good point, but it's a tough argument to quantify, since there's no "for every week a song spends at No. 1 on Hot 100 Airplay, it should be selling X downloads" formula, or a "if an album sells X many copies, its singles should be selling Y downloads" formula to determine a true "success". it's tough to come to a definitive answer on these points I don't have the exact download figures to compare Katy or Ke$ha to Rihanna, so maybe someone else could provide those, but Katy is coming off a massive era (likely her career peak, but time will tell), so if you compare Katy's last album (TD) to Rihanna's last album (TTT), Katy would easily look better. in regards to Ke$ha, I think Unapologetic will out-shine Warrior in every way (radio play, album sales, single sales), but we'll see how future singles play out. if we compare their 2010 releases (Animal/Cannibal VS Loud) on those three components (album sales, single sales, radio peak), it might be a different story. I think Rihanna is quite strong on all 3 fronts: airplay, downloads, and album sales, and that's what's made her...well...Rihanna. her albums aren't selling like 21 or Red, but she's scanned over 1 million with her past 5 albums. her songs haven't been downloaded as much as "Call Me Maybe" or "Somebody That I Used To Know", but I believe "We Found Love" is in the 3.5-4 million range and "Where Have You Been" is just shy of 2 million. sorry, this has gotten really long-winded and I think I've lost my original point a bit. maybe someone else has a better way of responding to "Rihanna should be selling more downloads and/or albums based on her airplay". |
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jenglisbe
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Post by jenglisbe on Dec 14, 2012 18:20:30 GMT -5
But with the exposure "We Found Love" had, it should be up there with the "CMM," "Someone Like You," etc. And again, it's not like it fueled album sales at the expense of downloads.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2012 19:02:48 GMT -5
Talk That Talk still sold more on We Found Love than Carly, fun., Gotye, Nicki, Kelly etc did with their huge smashes.
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