Thread by @ViewsOutcharted, Why Billboard should Abolish Radio: A Thread Billboard is an American company [...]

Why Billboard should Abolish Radio: A Thread

Billboard is an American company that specializes in the creation and distribution of music charts based a song/album’s commercial performance. Since 1958, the music industry has looked to the Billboard Hot 100 chart to accurately portray the most popular song for a given week.

While Billboard houses various charts for different genres, I will focus on the Hot 100, and Billboard’s over reliance on Radio.

Many things stated in this thread could apply to other charts, such as the Billboard 200, the albums chart.

Part 1: Payola

Payola, in music, is the practice of “paying for play”, which is a major inconvenience in the fairness of determining the scale of hit songs. Billboard is not new to claims of Payola and has been investigated before, most recently in September 2019;

when the RIAA was asked by the FCC to investigate claims of payola across various areas, most notably radio. Payola has been an issue in the music industry for decades, and as of late has become “lax” according to FCC commissioner Mike O’Rielly.

Many record labels have had run in’s with payola claims within the last 20 years, with many being swept under the rug. The act of paying for play is not only harmful to artists who don’t have the budget for these illegal deals, but also cheapens what a “hit record” is today.

While the payola investigation above has not seemed to bring back any conclusive evidence of foul play, the use of radio payola is still alive as certain artists have acknowledged and admitted to such uses (link in sources).

Part 2: Lack of Radioplay/ Blackballing

Many artists of all tiers have suffered from being “blackballed”, a phenomenon in which they’re not played on radio due to some external situation. A prime example of this is Nicki Minaj, who for the past 2-3 years has suffered dramatic;

falls on the H100 due to lack of Radio push and DJ’s admitting to keeping her off of radio stations. below, you will see a diagram of radio peaks to some of 2018 and 2019’s biggest songs, compared to Minaj’s singles.

NOTE**
The diagram above is not meant to accuse any artist of foul play, it’s just there to provide a clear image of what’s going on.

DJ Envy has also admitted to forming a crusade against radio DJ’s to stop playing Minaj’s music during 2018.

Part 3: Radio Deals

In the music industry, various labels can purchase radio deals to secure proper rotation on radio stations. While this isn’t necessarily illegal and doesn’t constitute as payola under our previously established definition, it provides an unfair advantage to;

those signed to large music groups like Universal and Sony, and can work against independent artists, blackballed artists, and International artists/groups such as BTS.

Part 4: Radio’s Weight on Billboard

Radio is classified as “passive listening” meaning that it could be disregarded as a method of a person actively seeking out a piece of music. Radio is weighed heavily on Billboard despite this, which creates an interesting dynamic;

Radio often being the tie breaker in a situation with songs competing for the top spot. In 2020, we’ve had 2 songs: The Box by Roddy Ricch and Rockstar by DaBaby that have had monumental radio peaks that subsequently keep them at the top of the charts for weeks consecutively.

the reason why this is such an issue is due to the nature of radio. songs that sell hundreds of thousands of copies and are streamed millions of times are more indicative of a song’s popularity rather than a month’s old song still surviving off of a radio deal or past trends.

“Rockstar” and “Watermelon Sugar” having radio peaks of 80M provides little fairness to songs like “Move Ya Hips” which is predicted to debut with under 1.5M, and as such that song must put up sales figures of > 150-175k to have a chance at competing for #1.

Part 5: Interchart relationships

The presence of an artist on the radio can act as promotion; allowing an everyday listener to hear a song and stream/purchase it later. Going back to the case of Nicki Minaj and artists like her, there performance on radio can negatively impact;

promotion of an album and it’s subsequent peaks/longevity on Billboard 200. Below, you will see a diagram of albums with and without radio play within the last 2 years.

Radio:

Invasion of Privacy - Cardi B (121 weeks)

Scorpion - Drake (109 weeks)

Without Radio:

Queen - Nicki Minaj (54 weeks)

Rare - Selena Gomez (16 weeks)

Many of the singles from albums mentioned with radio had extremely high radio peaks that in turn positively impacted album sales due to promotion.

Part 6: Alternative Charts

There have been various music charts since Billboard that have competed but haven’t lasted. In 2019, the Rolling Stone 100 Chart was established to specialize in charts WITHOUT passive listening like Radio. it’s shown that many artists have higher peak

positions, like Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Summer” that debuted and peaked at #11 on the Hot 100, but #1 on the Rolling Stone charts. The chart pays special attention to things like sales with a concentration in streaming #’s, which leaves it free of illegal numbers.

In conclusion, Billboard needs to abolish radio due to the level of corruption that occurs under the basis of payola and other illegal and unfair tactics. With rumors of Billboard raising Radio’s weight on the charts, and music fan’s increasing interest in the chart performance;

of their favorite artists, the things that many top music executives deal in behind the scenes could come to light and effectively ruin the reputation of Billboard not only as a company, but as a staple in mainstream music.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vibe.com/amp/2019/02/dj-envy-nicki-minaj-blackballed

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nowthisnews.com/amphtml/pop/radio-why-wont-you-play-bts

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/payola-radio-fcc-riaa-letter-880304/amp/

Chart Predictions and BB200:

@billboard
@billboardcharts
@talkofthecharts

https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200

I’ve seen a few people say how radio shouldn’t be abolished and just have the weight reviewed. I completely agree! I do think that since radio is still a relatively big part of music consumption it could be good even though it’s still considered “passive listening”.

Another example of Radio Blackballing — please support the original post
https://twitter.com/pradajahseh/status/1292583765500461056?s=21 https://twitter.com/pradajahseh/status/1292583765500461056

https://twitter.com/pradajahseh/status/1292583765500461056?s=21

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