It may all begin with a song—as local lyricists like to proclaim—but it all begins to matter with the charts, those invaluable, infuriating record-popularity lists that have become the music industry’s heart monitor. This week, yet another chart joins the country music info-haze as Music Row magazine introduces “The Songpower Index.” This newest entry is designed to assess the popularity potential of country singles between the time radio stations receive them from the record labels and the time the singles are either embraced by the more comprehensive Billboard and Radio & Records charts or else mostly rejected for airplay.
“I was searching for a way to help the industry focus more on the music and not so much on all the factors that get in the way,” says Music Row publisher David Ross. “So much of the radio industry seems to be ruled by the charts instead of actually listening to the music.... Everybody seems to agree that, for the most part, the choice of which songs are going to ‘work’ on the radio appears to be coming from a more select group of stations at the top of the heap. Then it filters on down. This is in marked contrast to what went on three or four years ago.”
“We’ve got a group of reporters who are essentially from some of these larger stations,” Ross adds. “The one requirement we have is that they be people who are really listening to the music. Fewer and fewer radio guys are fitting into this category these days, unfortunately.” Ross says he does not solicit data from stations programmed by outside consultants.
The Songpower Index has two areas of measurement for each of the 25 or so singles on its list: the “Add Factor” division, in which each responding programmer estimates the likelihood that his or her station will add the single to its playlist, and the “Passion” division, in which the programmers indicate by number how much they actually like the single. The Add Factor scale is calibrated from 1 through 4, with 1 meaning that the station is not likely to add the single and 4 meaning that it is very likely to. Passion is gauged on an ascending scale from 1 through 5.
Ross says he has 50 programmers in significant country markets who report their assessments to him each week. Each week’s chart lists the number of respondents who have actually listened to the single in question, the total number of Add Factor points the single has accumulated from the reporting panel, the average number of Add Factor points for the current week, and the average number of points for the previous week. The Passion division also lists total number of respondent points and the current week’s and previous week’s average. Singles are ranked according to the total number of Add Factor points accumulated that week.
To announce the results of his weekly surveys, Ross has launched a two-page Songpower Index newsletter that gets faxed to subscribers on Mondays. The newsletter sells for $115 a year and will carry record-related advertising. Music Row magazine itself, which is published every two weeks, will feature The Songpower Index chart that has been compiled closest to the publication’s deadline. The first chart will appear in the Oct. 23 issue, which goes on sale Oct. 10. The initial newsletter was published Monday.
In addition to numerical data, the newsletter will also list the names and stations of reporting programmers, a breakdown of the numerical results within five geographic regions, and a “Reality Check” column in which the respondents make comments about the quality or appeal of specific singles. Ross says The Songpower Index chart will monitor independent as well as major-label singles, “as long as the records are being distributed and it’s a professional situation.”
Ross says the index will be sent out to other radio stations, including ones that report to Billboard and R&R. “I’m hoping that some of those guys out there who are not listening will be able to use this as a tool early on and say, ‘Wow! Look at this new record. The [Music Row] panel really likes it. I’d better go listen to it again. Maybe I should even add it....’ It seems like a lot of those stations hold back until a song gets to, like, No. 25 on the big charts before they add it.”
Short of rushing programmers rough mixes straight from the recording studio, it’s hard to see how radio could be involved any earlier in the promotion process. While it is easy—and tempting—to ridicule the proliferation of and claims made for charts, it’s obvious they wouldn’t exist if the music industry didn’t find considerable value in them. Sometimes that value lies in the information provided, sometimes in the bragging rights the charts afford those who have scaled them.
Publishers of accepted charts stand to make a mint from them—first by gathering, interpreting, packaging, selling, and reselling the basic information and, second, by selling ads to spotlight the music and congratulate artists who have done well. Every No. 1 is another occasion for the record company or music publisher to preen about its own achievement and to pat the successful artist and/or songwriter on the back.
Do airplay charts stifle musical creativity? Probably not, since they only reflect what radio is playing—or says it’s playing. At least The Songpower Index aims to broaden the parameters of country radio by encouraging programmers to take note of potentially overlooked records. If the chart manages to lengthen country radio playlists, it will certainly have justified its existence.
Currents
Rory Bourke, Charlie Black, Tim Krekel, and other Nashville songwriters will join fellow composer Alan Rhody for his 50th Birthday Bash, Oct. 10 at the Rudyard Kipling in Louisville, Ky. Funds from the event will be donated to maintain the Maurice L. Kohnhorst Memorial Rose Garden at the Kentucky Children’s Home. Tickets are $10. Details are available at (502) 636-1311.
Comments (0)