My understanding is that Big Machine outsourced Top 40 promo to Republic for those two songs.
Over & Over was a Nelly song featuring McGraw, so promo was done by Nelly's label.
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Top 40 Ignoring Ella Langley
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
My understanding is that Big Machine outsourced Top 40 promo to Republic for those two songs.
Over & Over was a Nelly song featuring McGraw, so promo was done by Nelly's label.
Thanks for the info - I wish I could remember which person it was on here that said Taylor came to their station, they would probably know even more about how/by which company her crossovers were promoted.
If we were talking about a record that was unproven... or even a record that was at #15 on the Hot 100... or maybe even a record that was #1 on the Hot 100 for a week... then I get the promo rep thing and agree that there's a job to be done there.
But a song that's been as big a hit as this? If a lack of promo reps are the reason the song isn't playing on CHR, radio needs to stop looking to promo reps and start looking at what listeners actually want to hear...
In other words, BigA, do you think radio should need a promo rep to advocate for a record that's spent 7 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and is at the top of streaming charts, too? I don't think so.
I think we agree that there's an issue here. I'm just curious where exactly that disconnect is that's causing the song to not get spins.
Then what do you think the reason is?
I'm not sure. I don't know what 96.1 KISS at to program their songs (or if they even program their own songs or if that's done by iHeart). Same for other CHR stations.
You may well be right about the promo rep thing. What I'm saying is if that's the reason stations aren't playing it, they're really messing up big time. There is so much more data available to program a pop music station with than ever before. KQV or WABC's PD back in 1968 would be so incredibly mind-blown by it. Even in the 60s PDs weren't relying on just promo reps to decide what to add to stations. That was one tool, but definitely not the whole toolbox. They looked at national charts and trade magazines, what sister stations were playing, what was coming in on the request lines, what local record stores were stocking and what was selling, what their cross-town competitor was playing... And a lot of that info was semi-reliable, at best.
Today, there are a ton of sources for statistical information. A PD can see what's streaming and what's not. They have access to many charts - downloads charts, airplay charts, streaming statistics, physical media sales... the list goes on and on. And it's data, not what the record store down the street tells the PD is selling 'cause they got a great deal on a release they really want to move...
If WABC decided not to play the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" back when it was a new #1 hit just 'cause a Capitol rep hadn't dropped in yet... they'd have been foolish on a plethora of levels.
That's magnified today because in 1964, listeners in NYC wouldn't hear the song unless a competing station was playing it or they saw it on TV. Today? People no longer need radio to tell 'em what the hits are because there's a good chance they streamed it before they tuned into a CHR station to hear it. So it's even more important to be playing those hits and not passing on them. What you don't play can hurt you if you're supposed to be playing are the hits and you aren't playing them. Because that means by default what you are playing is... well... not the hits.
I suspect that the bean counter research that the programmers are doing is causing them to pass on this record. Because I've been told over and over again on this board that the research is where it's at, etc.
I remember you talking in another thread about how the reps were pushing a Lainey Wilson song for months and it wasn't a hit no matter how much they pushed it (I think the song was 4x4xU). Evidently, there was something else other than the reps from keeping 4x4xU off country radio. And Lainey was already an established artist at that point - that song is from her second major LP.
If stations in any era just played what the reps pushed the hardest, they'd likely be playing a bunch o' stiffs.
This just in from Billboard:
www.billboard.com
So she's #1 in the Hot 100, plus has the #1 album.
Ella Langley Achieves First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Dandelion’
Ella Langley earns her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with "Dandelion."
www.billboard.com
So she's #1 in the Hot 100, plus has the #1 album.
Even more of a reason why her song should be getting spins.This just in from Billboard:
Ella Langley Achieves First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Dandelion’
Ella Langley earns her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with "Dandelion."
So she's #1 in the Hot 100, plus has the #1 album.
I’ve listened to most of the album and there are a lot of high points on it. Very well done.
Sorry BigA, re-reading my last post, I think my tone was off. I’m not trying to be combative and I’m sorry if it came across that way.
Stations and labels don’t do research on brand new songs. Over the years, the music industry has tried to come up with a way to research new songs to determine which ones to release and promote… with no success. Stations generally do not do the present day equivalent of “call out” until a song has been on the air several weeks and been played a certain minimum number of times.
Everyone, from label to station, flies blind upon the original release. Even the sources that show online use can’t tell who is listening with needed precision.
On the other hand, after 7 weeks of online exposure, a station can test against its own listeners. Even if a song has big stream counts, that does not mean your listeners care about it.
In some cases, a PD will go by the axiom that “what you don’t play won’t hurt you” and skip a song. You can always play it later, but nobody tunes out over a song you don’t play.
But none of that data is specific to the PD’s own audience. It is generalized and homogenized and does not say anything to the PD other than to say”watch this song”.
Nobody, label or station, can research a song before it is released.
And radio research is very specific to “would you like to hear that song on your favorite station today.”
We know that most promoters have a three word vocabulary… Play. My. Record. That is their job, no matter whether they think the song or not. This is why many of us severely limited calls and visits by promoters.
Those were pop first.
They essentially don't need it right now. CHR has plenty of "pure pop" product right now, they don't need a country crossover.
The stiff was "Hang Tight Honey." "4X4XU" was rushed to radio to prevent Lainey from losing further momentum and it eventually topped the chart. Wilson is now a victim of Ella's sensational rise. She and Megan Moroney are country radio's "It Girls" right now and two of those seems to be all radio wants to deal with at this point. There are all those interchangeable Birges and Davises and Dickersons for country radio to feed the SEC sorority girl demographic, the listeners that the analytics folk say don't want to listen to women singing and would rather listen to warmed-over bro country by some buff hunk whose dreams of football glory ended in Division 2 ball.
The ladies still seem to be obsessed with Morgan Wallen.
That racist? 🤮hard pass. And that hair eww the 80s called they want their hair back.
They were probably able to see that country crossovers get more "tune out" than pure pop tracks a few years ago when they did play them. Usually the times they reach for them, pop music is stalled.
Most people don't know them as "country crossovers." They just know them as music. People don't think of Jelly Roll as country crossover.
I don’t think of him as country.
I'm far from a Wallen fan, really can't stand any of his music, but calling him a racist is a bit much. Jelly Roll has been reported as using the "n" word in public numerous times over the years but has never faced any of the media backlash Wallen has.
Jelly Roll has credibility in Nashville rap/hip-hop circles, whereas Wallen only reached out to them after his drunken outburst went viral. I tend to think the alcohol was largely to blame in Wallen's case.