Quote:
Originally posted by Glamophonic
Can someone explain me how to calculate the Hot 100? How are points counted and stuff!  |
Most of the points are made up of digital sales and airplay audience impressions. Digital sales come from
legal digital download providers such as iTunes, Amazon, Walmart, Rhapsody, and others. Billboard does not track illegal digital download providers such as LimeWire, MP3 Rocket, Kazaa, ******* sites, and other file sharing networks. An audience impression is a measure of how large an audience a song reaches, and is usually expressed in millions of people. For example, one play by a New York radio station might be rated as a certain number of million impressions, meaning that this is a reasonable if necessarily inexact estimate of the number of people who heard it. These are estimates, but very good estimates.
So, let's say we have two songs. We'll call them "You" and "Me."
In one week, let's say "You" sells 213,467 digital downloads and tops the Hot Digital Songs chart for the week. However, it's airplay isn't immensely large yet. It only has 67.813 million audience impressions. It still has a chance to hit #1, though. Let's see what "Me" did.
In one week, "Me" has lost digital strength and sold 156,965 copies. However, it's just now peaking on airplay. It is doing great and has gained 102.786 million audience impressions.
So now, we add those together. Just turn the comma into a decimal.
"You" would have 213.467+67.813 = 281.280
"Me" would have 156.965+102.786 = 279.751
With just airplay and digital downloads counted, "You" would be #1 and "Me" #2. HOWEVER, Billboard also accounts in two other things. Physical CD single sales and streaming. Not many artists release CD singles anymore because the top song only sells about 1,000-2,000 a week. Streaming is plays on the Internet, such as Yahoo! and AOL, unfortunately, Vevo and YouTube aren't taken into account because it is too hard to track weekly plays from them. Vevo does have potential to be added soon, though. Both streaming and CD singles points are very small, but could decide between #1 and #2.
Let's say "You" has not been released on CD single. So, it gains no points there. It also doesn't have a video. It's not being released for another two weeks, so again, no points.
"Me" has a video and it is on a CD single, which is weird, but a few songs are still available on CD single. "me" sold 1,213 copies there and Gained another 0.982 from streaming. So, now the points are like this...
"You" 281.280+0.000+0.000 = 281.280
"Me" 279.751+1.213+0.982 = 281.946
Thanks to that small amount of points, "Me" is now #1 on the Hot 100, and "You" has to settle for #2.
