TM Studios Song Search

I don't see any of the "D" discs listed. Did they just decide not to include those HitDiscs?

Including discs A, B, C, D, and E there are a few varieties Including an "I" disc that was an International release I believe.

Looking at the old format, Pre-1996 there was only the "A" and "B" discs. I'm not sure when the "E" and "I" discs started pressing.

"A" covered CHR, AC and Country releases. "B" covered the AOR and Urban releases and also some of the Smooth Jazz as it developed. The oldest Hitdiscs I know of are in the 600
number category. Every week, the sequential next disc would arrive except during the year end holidays, and resume in the first week in January. Later generation "B" discs added,
"New Rock" as a genre though I'm not sure when.

At some point they finally had a rollover of the numbers due to the three digit numbering system. So, there actually was a "000" pair of discs made.

Also, beginning around set "172", they re-arranged the content to include 2 extra discs in the weekly rotation. "C" and "D" discs were added as genres made subtle changes.

"A" still applied CHR and AC While Urban was moved to the "A" disc.
"B" Now covered the AAA, Alternative and Modern Rock genres.
"C" was NAC, Urban AC, and Country. Though I believe The smooth Jazz floated in among the Urban AC frequently.
"D" was singularly formatted as a "Dance" category which pulled in a lot of the charting club tunes along with a number of other white label sources.
"E" was not, AFAIK marketed to Europe, but instead carried a number of the current charting hits in Europe. "EHI" and "IHR" charts.

I think only the "I" discs were for markets outside the US.

GoldDisc was its own omnibus with the genres. Just about anything from any genre ended up on a GoldDisc.

I'm sure there are a number of "Not quite so" instances with my reply, but in general this was how it looked at the time they were printed.

AdvprosD wrote: GoldDisc was its own omnibus with the genres. Just about anything from any genre ended up on a GoldDisc.

I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that, but they did
sometimes put an unusual song or two to fill out a disc.
They did have libraries for different formats, and there
was some overlap between them (for example oldies and
classic rock might share some discs). Lots of
duplication of songs on discs, even within a library.

I got to pick apart the TM Century library in detail as I upgraded some '90s-era track for myself.

For tracks released from 1993 to 1998 (I didn't look at anything newer than that), the TM Century tracks are outstanding. They seem to be digital clones of the promo CD singles, usually with a level change (to decrease the levels so that they roughly match '80s-era releases), occasionally an EQ adjustment, and no noise reduction whatsoever. The tracks are labeled in a manner that's consistent with the promo CD singles ("Edit", "LP version", "Supa Dope Fly 7 Inch Remix Edit", etc.) I was very impressed.

For tracks released around 1992, I saw some tracks that were labeled sloppily ("Edit" when it should have been "Single Version", etc.) The sound quality is still great.

For tracks released around 1991, virtually none of the tracks were labeled with the correct designation. It took a significant effort (thanks to Discogs) to match run times with the printed times on promo CD singles to figure out what versions were in the TM Century library. The sound quality is still good, at least on tracks that I spot-checked against the promo CD singles.

For tracks released around 1990, in addition to lacking the proper labeling, it seems that TM Century used an analog step in their mastering. (Play the CD, send through an analog mixing board to tweak EQ, re-digitize.) The analog process adds a little hum to the background, which you can hear at the end of the fades. Very disappointing.

I didn't dig into anything released before 1990.

I can generalize about some other series from that time frame:

Hitmakers seemed to use digital clones of the promo CD singles. On most others, the full dynamic range was intact, but on some tracks, I saw clipping at values less than 100%, like around 70% or 80%. On a handful of tracks, they shortened the tail of the fade. They didn't attempt to properly label the tracks according to the promo CD single (no "Edit", "Single Version", etc.)

TuneUp (Network40, Album TuneUp, etc.) also seemed to use digital clones of the promo CD singles. I didn't see any instances of clipping. On a handful of tracks, they shortened the tail of the fade. No designations in their labeling (no "Edit", etc.)

Hot Hits was a jukebox/mobile DJ service. I think their masterings were digital clones of the promo CD singles, possibly with level changes, but no EQ adjustments, no compression/limiting/clipping, no NR, and no truncation of the fades. For the 1991-1993ish time frame, Hot Hits seemed to use track 1 of the promo CD singles, but this wasn't a hard and fast rule. No designations in their labeling (no "Edit", etc.) On the whole, I used the Hot Hits version over others whenever I didn't have the promo CD single.

Spotlight On Hits was a lesser-known jukebox service. They, too, used digital clones of the promo CD singles, possibly with level changes, but no EQ adjustments, no compression/limiting/clipping, no NR, and no truncation of the fades. For the 1991-1993ish time frame, Spotlight On Hits seemed to use the album version, but this wasn't a hard and fast rule. No designations in their labeling. I often used the Spotlight versions when I didn't have the album version from a record-company release (either the album version on a promo CD single, or the album version on the actual full-length CD from the artist).

There were other services as well (Promo Only probably being the best-known), but I don't have many of those.

The good news is that on the whole, tracks from these series sound just as good as the promo CD singles, and should be far easier to obtain than the promo CD singles. (Those promo CD singles are crazy expensive nowadays!)

I'll be happy to answer specific questions if you have any, but I wanted to summarize in this post some generalities before they slide out of my short-term memory.

As always, your review of the various music services
was interesting and appreciated. In the 90s there
were several other series of (generally monthly) "hit
discs", some of which were only around for a
relatively short time. Not sure how those outfits
made any money...we never had to pay for any of them.
All were a good source, especially in smaller markets
that may not have gotten as good label service as the
larger ones. There were some that contained unique
versions, one that immediately comes to mind was Gina
G's "Ooh Ah Just A Little Bit" that ran 3:00 with a
cold ending.

You didn't mention Top Hits USA in your review, though
you've mentioned them in the past. What's your take
on them?

crapfromthepast wrote: There were other services as well (Promo Only probably being the best-known), but I don't have many of those.

In the mid-late 00s/early teens one of the PDs I
worked with also had a mobile DJ service and
subscribed to them. He let me rip some stuff from
them, and I found they'd often upcut at the beginning
of a song. There were also what were apparently house
edits of some songs.