Beginning March 28th Roots Music Report will no longer track
Live 365 internet radio
spins.
We are compiling a new database to track internet 365 play independently and will
launch soon.
Making the Charts
Methodology and Reporting Policy of the Roots Music Report
Radio stations enter into the database the number of times
they have played an artist/album for the week and spins are
updated weekly into the database. The database then tabulates
all spins reported by stations that week and places the
artist/album in a chart order of most spins to least spins
received by all stations.
Each general genre chart has 50 placements. State/regional
charts have a varied number of placements due to the
variance of the number of albums reported with artist
residing in any given state.
A new artist/album makes placement into our database by being
reported by at least 2 terrestrial radio stations or 3
internet radio stations or a combination of the two in a one
week period. Once this criterion is met the
artist/album is authorized to enter the database for
tabulation.
This
reporting rule was implemented after the realization that we
had stations with large spins counts controlling the charts
with an artist only being played on their lone station.
Our goal always is to keep the charts fair to artists
receiving airplay on several stations that report small spin
counts and to stop any one station monopolizing the charts.
For this reason some spins for the week may show a 0 count on
your playlist. This is directly the result of your station
being the only one to station is report the album.
However, please keep reporting the artist/album and as soon
as another station does the same it will be authorized into
the database for tabulation.
We have added a few new music genres in the last several
months and in order to help them through the growth stage we
are forgoing the number of stations needed for reporting
that genre. Upon reaching a sufficient number of reporting
stations for the new genre we will then switch them over to
the same requirements as our established genres.
In addition,
we allow syndicated stations to multiply each spin by the
number of their syndications (ex. 12 syndicated stations; 12
spins for each 1 spin); however, we do start restricting the
multiplications when syndications are to more than 20
stations.
Most of our
syndicated stations expressed their belief that they should
have a larger spin count due to the fact that they reach a
larger audience and we certainly agree, however we can't
allow a station with an extremely large syndication rate to
count all of their stations.
For example
we have some syndicated programs that are broadcast on more
than 600 radio stations however we only allow them to report
only 20 spins. This is due to the fact that, if a syndicated
show is on 400 stations and plays an album 3 times per show
the reported spins would be 1200, which would essentially
make it that station’s genre a one-show-chart. Therefore,
we limit a syndicated stations spins while still trying to
allow for the fact that they do reach a larger listening
audience.
Our total
spin counts are much lower than most charts for this reason
but we believe this allows for a more accurate portrayal of
any given artist’s popularity on stations around the world.
We are doing
our very best to make our chart system balanced and fair.
Whether it’s an artist that is played by 10 stations with 10
or more syndicated shows each, for an artist that is being
played by 2 stations at 50 spins each, or if an artist that
is played by 20 stations at 1 spin each. We no longer
accept reports from Live 365 stations.
By requiring
an album to be played by at least 2 to 3 stations, before
being authorized into the database, as well as allowing some
reporting balance for syndicated shows we are hoping for a
much more realistic chart that can still be fair to the
little guys. Our goal is to keep our charts honest and
keep out the politics.
We thank all the stations that take the time and effort to
report their spins to us. You are vital to making the RMR
charts work. We are well aware that without them there would
be no charts.
