Here in KC, the new single from Sam Smith gets a lot of airplay already despite being relatively new, while the new single from ava max ("maybe you're the problem" is it's name). I wonder why that is? The ava single also is ignored in a lot of markets. The "aud" and"bullet" for the single is alright the first week, though it fell today. What do pds use to decide the new songs?
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Why do PDs jump on some singles but not others?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
You keep picking these artists who are mainly international stars. Ava Max had ONE US Top 10 in 2018. The rest of her songs got airplay in Norway, Sweden, and other Euro countries. This new one isn't even getting played in Europe.
Why isn't getting played? Maybe because it's not a hit, and it's from an artist who hasn't really had any hits. This is not a radio problem. It's a music problem.
And these examples show to some extent why radio stations have program directors and music directors: each station plays the songs their team thinks fit the station, will be liked by the audience and when there is a space on the list to be filled.
Often the PD will say, "do I need that song this week or can I wait and see who adds it in other markets next week?" Sometimes if we have only one opening but we have several potential adds, something like an appearance on a TV special or even SNL will tip the scale in favor of one song over others.
There are so many factors that move potential adds up or down the priority list, and the biggest one is the feel and opinion of the station PD and (if they have one) music director.
She hasn't completely disappeared from us airwaves though. My head and my heart was a decent hit last year and she was featured with Tiesto this year in the song "the motto" which got played.
BTW if I'm Taylor Swift, I'm calling my publisher to see if Ava Max ripped off one of her melodies. It sounds like a techno version of "Shake It Off" to me.
Neither of those songs were hits in the US. They both peaked in the mid 40s. They got the most airplay in the UK, and even there, neither song made it to Top 10. Let's face it: She hasn't had a real hit yet.
Meanwhile Sam Smith is a bonified superstar. This is the first single from a long-awaited new album. There will be tons of publicity around it. Keep in mind this isn't just a radio decision. The label is part of the process. I bet Capitol is already getting ready to build a monster for this one. They've been greasing the wheels for months. No comparison.
How did I know it was going to be another one of these threads again?
I wonder why ava had so many hits that didn't chart in the US? Songs like so am I and torn could have impacted I would think
Just like ABBA, something did not click...
So Am I didn't even chart in Billboard's Hot 100, which also tracks streaming. The only place it charted was in Dance Club Songs. It was a hit in Norway and Sweden, but the follow-up, "Torn," didn't chart in either country.
She hasn't really had ANY hits in this country. She's a fringe techno pop act who gets attention in Europe where this kind of music is more popular. EDM lives in its own world.
On a related note, I lived near Joplin, mo in 2012. Their hot ac at the time kcar (star 1043) used to play kerli "the lucky ones" a lot, which was big on the dance charts I see, but didn't chart at all on chr or hot ac. At that time they played a very high amount of dance songs for a hot ac. In recent years, they've switched formats to adult hits.
That year 2012 was the last peak for EDM in this country. Two year later it started to collapse. These days, it's really seen as fringe music. If stations play it at all, it's usually confined to nights.
I don't understand your comment. ABBA was one of the biggest acts in modern music history. The only thing that might have hurt them in the USA was their disco-esque catalog but they also had some beautiful non-disco songs.
Wouldn't be the first time for a techno act to test the limits of plagiarism.
They had several US hits, but many more that stiffed here or weren't even pitched to American radio.
But their sales in the US as well as their American airplay was vastly less than in much of the rest of the world. Many believe it has to do with the rather cumbersome English lyrics that at times seemed to be constructed based on a rhyming dictionary rather than real feelings.
On the other hand, in Latin America where obtuse English was not a factor, they had hit after hit. But as CTListener mentions, many of their big international hits were not even single releases in the US.
They had only one #1 in the US: Dancing Queen. That was it.
So? They had plenty of other hits here.
She (or one of her people) made sure Right Said Fred were credited as songwriters on one of her songs, just in case.
To be fair, "Waterloo," "Fernando" and "The Winner Takes It All" were solid top 10 hits, and several others hit the top 20, so they were far from one-hit wonders on this side of the pond, but they had NINE No. 1s in the UK alone,
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