https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ Copyright (c) 2006-2013 Web Wiz Forums - All Rights Reserved. Wed, 06 May 2026 00:47:48 +0000 Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:52:21 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 12.07 360 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/RSS_post_feed.asp?TID=5236 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum//images/Top-40-Music-on-CD-Forum-Logo.png https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/ https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24214&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24214 Author: Brian W.
Subject: 5236
Posted: 24 October 2009 at 6:52pm

fratboy96 wrote: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" was #1 in early 1992 (February?) under the new chart methodology. Even though it was ranked at #4 in airplay and sales, The three songs above it in airplay were below it in sales, and the three songs above it in sales were below it in airplay, so when all the points were tallied, DLTSGDOM came out on top. It was probably one of the tighter top 5 clusters in Billboard history.

Hmm, I guess you're right.]]> Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:52:21 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24214&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24214 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24213&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24213 Author: fratboy96
Subject: 5236
Posted: 24 October 2009 at 2:59pm

Brian W. wrote: The George Michael/Elton John duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" would likely never have hit #1 on the Hot 100, either... I think it peaked at #4 in both sales and airplay. And "I Wanna Sex You Up" probably would have been a #1 hit.

"Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" was #1 in early 1992 (February?) under the new chart methodology. Even though it was ranked at #4 in airplay and sales, The three songs above it in airplay were below it in sales, and the three songs above it in sales were below it in airplay, so when all the points were tallied, DLTSGDOM came out on top. It was probably one of the tighter top 5 clusters in Billboard history.

Edited by fratboy96]]> Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:59:29 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24213&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24213 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24171&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24171 Author: aaronk
Subject: 5236
Posted: 19 October 2009 at 2:49pm

Very true! They are the best we've got, and they still give us a pretty good idea of what was popular at the time. I definitely refer to Billboard and R&R charts on a regular basis.]]> Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:49:44 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24171&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24171 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24169&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24169 Author: torcan
Subject: 5236
Posted: 19 October 2009 at 2:27pm

All of this maybe true (and if there are any other stories about this please post!!), but when you look at the singles that were certified gold or platinum, they were almost always songs that made it near the top of the charts; so maybe they weren't as accurate as they are today, but they couldn't have been that far off in EVERY case.

Even if the charts were somewhat inaccurate, they're still the best we've got, right! :)

Edited by torcan]]> Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:27:39 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24169&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24169 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24168&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24168 Author: aaronk
Subject: 5236
Posted: 19 October 2009 at 2:16pm

In the mid-90s, my station would report to some of the trades. Our list of spins was based off the number of times a song was scheduled to play (in Selector). Nobody actually went back to reconcile the logs if a song was added or dropped.

It's funny that so many of us are diehard chart followers, yet those charts appear to be very inaccurate, especially in the days before Mediabase and SoundScan.]]> Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:16:44 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24168&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24168 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24157&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24157 Author: Brian W.
Subject: 5236
Posted: 18 October 2009 at 7:43pm

Hykker wrote: Even in the 90s, when we reported weekly spins to the trades it was honor system. We called the trade papers & told them how many spins per title from the past week. Easy to fudge if we'd wanted to. For that matter, sales figures were pretty suspect and subject to manipulation before Soundscan.

Absolutely. I have a relative who is a former radio DJ and program director for a classic rock station that reported to Billboard. He laughed when he told me that they used to just write whatever the hell they wanted on their reporting lists.

I remember reading a Billboard article where one of their chart people, might have been Geoff Mayfield, said how shocked they were when they began doing the unpublished test charts with SoundScan. They were amazed at how far off the actual figures were from what the radio stations and record stores were reporting.

While the Hot 100 continued to be compiled from those airplay/sales reports for the first several months, the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot 100 Airplay charts, as published, were taken from SoundScan, so we can see just what the difference was during that time.

One example that comes to mind is Rod Stewart's "The Motown Song." It hit #10 on the Hot 100 pre-SoundScan system. But the Sounscan-based sales and airplay breakdown shows it peaked at #24 airplay and #36 sales. That song would NEVER have been top ten if Billboard had begun compiling the Hot 100 from SoundScan earlier.

The George Michael/Elton John duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" would likely never have hit #1 on the Hot 100, either... I think it peaked at #4 in both sales and airplay. And "I Wanna Sex You Up" probably would have been a #1 hit.
]]> Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:43:02 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24157&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24157 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24153&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24153 Author: Hykker
Subject: 5236
Posted: 18 October 2009 at 3:14pm

Keep in mind that prior to Mediabase/BDS monitoring, there was no way to accurately determine airplay. Prior to music scheduling programs like Selector, determining how many times a given song played in a week was pretty hit or miss. Maybe the big stations in the major markets kept accurate play logs, but I worked at a couple smaller-market stations that were Billboard reporters and we never kept playlists. I don't know what the PD reported when he gave the weekly reports.
Even in the 90s, when we reported weekly spins to the trades it was honor system. We called the trade papers & told them how many spins per title from the past week. Easy to fudge if we'd wanted to.

For that matter, sales figures were pretty suspect and subject to manipulation before Soundscan.

]]> Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:14:23 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24153&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24153 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24150&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24150 Author: Paul Haney
Subject: 5236
Posted: 18 October 2009 at 5:25am

The Hot 100 has always been a combination of sales and airplay. It's my understanding that the actual percentages have varied over the years. Here's an actual sentence from Billboard's issue dated August 4, 1958, the introduction of the very first Hot 100 chart:

Weighted factors in the carefully designed formula include disk jockey plays, juke box activity and sales at the retail level.]]> Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:25:36 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24150&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24150 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24149&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24149 Author: eric_a
Subject: 5236
Posted: 17 October 2009 at 11:51pm

Good catch - thanks!]]> Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:51:14 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24149&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24149 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24148&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24148 Author: EdisonLite
Subject: 5236
Posted: 17 October 2009 at 7:39pm

Clearly from that last statement, they use the term "best selling" to mean based on "retail sales and radio station airplay". So it's probably always been a combo of the 2. As for the weight of airplay vs. sales, I believe this has changed from time to time, certainly in the '80s and '90s.]]> Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:39:18 +0000 https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5236&PID=24148&title=at40-and-top-selling-singles#24148