U2 #1 on I-tunes and issue of tracking digital sales:

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tkramer

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Title says it all. I'm thrilled U2 is currently #1 on I-tunes, but was curious if anyone knows how/if that kind of thing is currently figured into the hot 100–and if not, doesn't that make it pretty incorrect? Digital downloading is getting to be big biz and I wonder what changes are coming to the way charts are compiled.
 
tkramer said:
Title says it all. I'm thrilled U2 is currently #1 on I-tunes, but was curious if anyone knows how/if that kind of thing is currently figured into the hot 100–and if not, doesn't that make it pretty incorrect? Digital downloading is getting to be big biz and I wonder what changes are coming to the way charts are compiled.

Over 90% of the HOT 100 is determined by radio airplay. Sales are not much of a factor. It is possible to make it into the top 5 without even releasing a single. Then again, people don't buy singles in the numbers they did years ago. But I-tunes might be changing that fact.
 
Re: Re: U2 #1 on I-tunes and issue of tracking digital sales:

STING2 said:


Over 90% of the HOT 100 is determined by radio airplay. Sales are not much of a factor. It is possible to make it into the top 5 without even releasing a single. Then again, people don't buy singles in the numbers they did years ago. But I-tunes might be changing that fact.

Ok, that's pretty much what I thought. Doesn't this make the hot 100 pretty useless? Let's say U2 sells 2,000-3,000 copies of Vertigo in week one on I-tunes. (I have no idea how off that is) But doesn't selling a single copy of a song mean more than 20 or even 30 radio plays? It means someone took the time and money to go download the thing because they loved it. Hmmm... Interesting topic of discusion.
 
Re: Re: Re: U2 #1 on I-tunes and issue of tracking digital sales:

tkramer said:


Ok, that's pretty much what I thought. Doesn't this make the hot 100 pretty useless? Let's say U2 sells 2,000-3,000 copies of Vertigo in week one on I-tunes. (I have no idea how off that is) But doesn't selling a single copy of a song mean more than 20 or even 30 radio plays? It means someone took the time and money to go download the thing because they loved it. Hmmm... Interesting topic of discusion.

I-tunes is very 21st century and the charts are often slow to adapt to new realities of the market. The old 45 RPM singles had really decreased in sales by 1987 and were over represented in their impact on the charts. Back then, it was 50% airplay and 50% sales which determined chart position. I took until the mid 1990s for Billboard to change their scoring criteria and not have singles representing 50% of what determined chart position.

Now the single song sale is coming back thanks to things like I-Tunes, but the HOT 100 may not react to that for some time.
 
You know the other thing that screws the top 100 up is consolidation. You have program directors working large areas with a 20 song list that repeats for months and pays little attention to mass opinion.

Sigh, I love Clear Channel...
 
Well, we at least know it matters to u2 that the single is or has been #1 at all the online i-tunes stores, as it is now part of the news section on the official site. Interesting.
 
How retarded of me. Billboard DOES have a top digital list. It will be interesting to see where U2 comes in (since Vertigo was an I-tunes exclusive) and to see if it effects the hot 100 list...

currently they have:

1 1985, Bowling For Soup
Silvertone/Jive | Zomba

2 She Will Be Loved, Maroon5
Octone/J | RMG

3 Let's Get It Started, Black Eyed Peas
A&M | Interscope

4 Goodies, Ciara
Sho'nuff-MusicLine/Jive | Zomba 4

5 American Idiot, Green Day
Reprise 5

6 Tilt Ya Head Back (Explicit Album Version), Nelly & Christina Aguilera
Derrty/Fo' Reel | UMRG 6

7 Yeah!, Usher Feat. Lil' Jon & Ludacris
LaFace | Zomba 1

8 My Happy Ending, Avril Lavigne
RCA | RMG 5

9 Take Me Out (Album Version), Franz Ferdinand
Domino | Epic 9

10 Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson
Walt Disney | Hollywood
 
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