ln recent years, several songs have charted years after their initial release, including "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun (released 2008, charted 2016), Good as Hell by Lizzo (charted 2019, released 2016), and now two songs: "I Love You Best" by The Walters (released 2014, charting now), and Sia "Unstoppable" (released 2015, charting now). This number will continue to grow I assume with Tiktok. Are there any songs you can think of and what do you think of this phenomenon?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Songs which chart years after their release?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Charlene's " I've Never Been To Me" count?
In fact, the airplay monitors require more than a minute of a song for it to "count". That requirement was added decades ago when labels were paying to have a 60'" spot run on reporting stations to get spin credit.
This is just down to the charts reporting streaming as well as sales now. Nobody is buying records, so now every time a track is played on YouTube or Spotify etc, it's reported as some fraction of a sale.
So when a track from some years ago gets featured on a viral TikTok video, or in a commercial or movie or TV series, it will often pop back up in the charts. Every Christmas, various holiday songs chart for a similar reason.
At the time of writing this, Harry Styles has three songs in the Billboard top 10 and 13 in the Billboard top 40. He released an album, and his fans are streaming the album in their millions, so his album tracks are charting. In some countries, getting a song into the chart is used as a form of protest - in Britain, various rude songs about politicians and members of the royal family periodically end up in the Top 40. Needless to say, Boris Johnson is a F**king C**t and Prince Andrew is a Sweaty Nonce do not rely on radio airplay to chart.
The charts are not what they were, in that you don't need to release a single (either into physical stores or onto music sales services like iTunes) to get into the charts - so any comparisons to the charts of the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s or prior are not really valid.
So when a track from some years ago gets featured on a viral TikTok video, or in a commercial or movie or TV series, it will often pop back up in the charts. Every Christmas, various holiday songs chart for a similar reason.
At the time of writing this, Harry Styles has three songs in the Billboard top 10 and 13 in the Billboard top 40. He released an album, and his fans are streaming the album in their millions, so his album tracks are charting. In some countries, getting a song into the chart is used as a form of protest - in Britain, various rude songs about politicians and members of the royal family periodically end up in the Top 40. Needless to say, Boris Johnson is a F**king C**t and Prince Andrew is a Sweaty Nonce do not rely on radio airplay to chart.
The charts are not what they were, in that you don't need to release a single (either into physical stores or onto music sales services like iTunes) to get into the charts - so any comparisons to the charts of the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s or prior are not really valid.
Last edited:
A: it's not exactly brand new.
B: does this somehow tie in to Ava Max?
B: does this somehow tie in to Ava Max?
Mediabase never tracked sales. And they don't track YouTube or Spotify. Some Billboard charts include streaming, and some don't. That's why I asked which charts are we talking about. The "fraction of a sale" metric you mentioned is something the recording industry invented when they realized people weren't buying music anymore. If it's some internal thing, used for awarding Gold & Platinum records, why do we care? It's not really indicative of anything.
Who knows? Maybe her new single will take off a few years from now if it doesn't catch on.
Man, a pd/mds job today would be complicated trying to look at the metrics if one wanted to fine tune the playlist.
Not really. Back in the day, we had to supervise the calling of record shops, one-stops and jukebox operators each week, and then do occasional personal visits to each location to "size them up" and make sure they were not on the take from labels. Later, we supervised and did hiring and scheduling of "phone turkeys" who called listeners and played hooks on the phone and got scores.
And so on. It But the key data is the "call out" (usually done online now) of our own core listeners. We use MediaBase and BDS to see other indicators, but not to make final decisions. Same with streams.
Remember, charts have a #1 and a #2 and so on. Radio stations have categories all with the same value and rotation... so in currents you might just have two or three sets of songs: new, power, regular for example. Each rotates differently, but all in the category can be played the same way.
Of course, with some superstars releasing several hits at a time or a new song every few week means a whole new area of work in keeping the songs far enough apart yet playing them each often enough to satisfy listeners.
That song did barely crack the Hot 100 (#97) and reach #23 on the AC chart when first released in 1977. Scott Shannon "rediscovered" it in 1982 and then it became a much bigger hit.
A better example is "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers. It didn't chart at all in the U.S. when first released in 1988, but reached #3 on the Hot 100 in 1993, after being featured in the film "Benny & Joon".
- Status