But that's also how fans of certain artists game the system. They put their device on repeat, and that drives up spins. You're not measuring the popularity of a song, but the intensity of the fan base. It's unfair to the other artists, but there's really no way to prevent it. So Wallen's music is overwhelming the system, and it slows down the rest of the chart. The Josh Ross song just spent 68 weeks on the chart waiting for a chance to slip in and get a #1. That's a long time to play a current song. That also takes a certain level of devotion from radio and radio listeners.
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Why Isn't Country Radio Playing the #1 Song On the Hot Country Chart?
- Thread starter AMRadioGuy
- Start date
But that's also how fans of certain artists game the system. They put their device on repeat, and that drives up spins. You're not measuring the popularity of a song, but the intensity of the fan base. It's unfair to the other artists, but there's really no way to prevent it. So Wallen's music is overwhelming the system, and it slows down the rest of the chart. The Josh Ross song just spent 68 weeks on the chart waiting for a chance to slip in and get a #1. That's a long time to play a current song. That also takes a certain level of devotion from radio and radio listeners.
Are you suggesting that enough of Morgan Wallen's fans are putting "Just In Case" on repeat on their phone and then turning the volume down and tucking it under their pillow to inflate his numbers?
There have been songs I've left on repeat, listening to them again and again, but that's because I dug them and wanted to hear them a bunch.
But there's definitely a cume vs tsl issue with just measuring number of streams. Because one artist could have 5 streams by one person and another could have 5 streams by 5 different people. As far as I know, those streams would be counted the same way.
We would have to get into the semantics of what actually makes a song "popular" at that point, because both songs had the same number of plays. Is a novelty record that a ton of people listen to once more popular than another release that half the audience listens to, but each three times?
I appreciate your responses, though, because they're making me think about popularity and formats and charts in ways that I haven't before, so thank you @TheBigA.
There's no way to know. What we know is the option is there to game the system. If radio followed the Hot 100 or the Hot Country chart, there would be a lot less artist diversity. You can see that in the chart. If people only want to hear Morgan music, they can stream it. That's not what radio does.
Which means it's hardly being played on radio at all. I have three area country stations I listen to regularly and have yet to hear "What I Want" or any other song outside the top 50. Generally, I hear only songs in the top 40, plus the occasional new track getting a big push from its label and just entering the chart. Maybe "What I Want" is getting two or three spins a week, in the wee hours of the morning. Maybe it's what the industry calls a "paper add," a song a station says it's playing but really isn't. (This might not be possible today with MediaBase tracking playlists.)
Keep in mind that the actual chart position is nearly irrelevant to radio stations. A typical station might divide 30 to 40 currents into a few powers, and maybe A currents and B currents, then new adds and songs about to drop off or become recurrents. In other words, maybe 5 categories for those newest songs. And some stations may not even have that many "real currents" since they either don't play currents as deep or move them to recurrent faster.
The things stations look for in the airplay and streaming statistics are very positive upward moves (such as lots of adds or many stations increasing spins), signs of absolute stiffing, and indications that a song may last a while as a current but never make it to recurrent.
Remember, a lot of stations and groups have their own internal research which is the first source of decision making data.
No, paper adds are not possible now. The only thing a station can do is "overplay" in midnight to 6 AM, but lots of us exclude those hours when we look at airplay reports.
That's happening here. I recently listened to one of those local country stations overnight and heard a couple of currents I recognized from The Highway (SiriusXM) but not from local FM.
I just received my copy of the Billboard Hot Country Chart, and What I Want is still #1. That makes more than 2 months. In addition, Morgan has 5 of the Top 10. Looking at the streaming chart, once again Morgan has 5 of the Top 10. As we've been saying, you can't program a radio station with this chart. It means no variety. But clearly a lot of people are listening to music this way, and it's therefore weighing down the Hot Country chart.
Meanwhile, on the Country Airplay chart, Morgan's Just In Case remains at #2, and his latest single is at #23. So even the airplay chart is affected by Morgan-Mania.
Meanwhile, on the Country Airplay chart, Morgan's Just In Case remains at #2, and his latest single is at #23. So even the airplay chart is affected by Morgan-Mania.
being the pedantic outlier that i love to be, we played the beyonce country song, as our morning show has been country music since we signed on. were playing several jelly roll country songs, including the one with brooks n dunn
Yup, and "What I Want" is at #55 this week on the airplay chart, its highest chart showing on that chart.
You're right - it would really be something if 5 of a station's heavily rotated tracks were all Morgan Wallen songs. I think the Beatles are pretty much the only group to have that happen, back in '64.
Thanks for sharing so much insight, @TheBigA. I've been learning a lot!
And The Beatles achieved that feat because, prior to 'busting-out' all over, a number of different labels had access to some of their music and released much of what they had at, basically, the same time to cash in on their explosive popularity.