We’re going to reveal as much as we can about the our Indie Top 20 Song Contest interactive feature, barring distractions

We’ll keep adding to this tweet as and when to generate a thread

There may be long gaps and it could overrun into next few days

#i40indietop20

We’ll put the feature in context first

The Indie Top 20s were a series of compilation albums released by Beechwood Music between 1987 and 1996

There were 23 albums in total (excluding Best Ofs etc)

Each album contains generally 20 songs in total with a couple of minor variations, apart from Volume 4 which only had 12 songs as it was twinned with a House music compilation

The #i40indietop20 will incorporate ALL 23 volumes

Each of the 23 volumes will be a team in #i40indietop20 and each song on the album a potential player that will represent the team during the feature

Here is an example team using Volume 15 as sample with the songs that are available to participate

Each album will managed by 10 participants who will be picking a song each from the album to represent their team during the feature

Therefore there will be 10 “feature weeks” in total and only 10 songs from the album will participate

#i40indietop20

Here is a team sheet using Vol 15 again as a sample and with the Week 1 manager’s pick revealed

So in this example Adorable “Sunshine Smile” are representing Vol 15 in Week 1

Managers will be “volunteers” from Twitter and we’ll explain later how you can become involved

In our example here are all the other Week 1 songs picked by the relevant team manager

Now is the time to mention this is not a song v song feature

As the name suggests this format is based on the Eurovision Song Contest

The songs will be competing against each other

Those 23 songs will each have been revealed gradually in the preceding week, representing their performance in the contest

This will be in a tweet showcasing the song via YT or other available platform

Here is a draft tweet with Vol 15 as example again

You will note that the songs for each week has a column for points. How do they earn these?

That is another job for the team managers. They will be voting behind the scenes for their individual 10 best songs from the 23

There will be NO twitter polls in this feature

For each managers Top 10 songs points will be awarded in a similar way to the Eurovision

1st - 12 pts
2nd - 10pts
3rd - 8 pts
4th - 7 pts
5th - 6 pts
6th - 5 pts
7th - 4 pts
8th - 3 pts
9th - 2 pts
10th - 1 pt

Every manager will be eligible to vote each feature week

Managers will vote privately and they cannot vote for the song that is representing their team, so they will be choosing from 22 of the 23 songs

We will pool together the individual managers votes to give us an aggregate score for each team thereby giving us a JURY RESULT

Here is an example of the Volume 1 aggregated results for Week 1 using the earlier example songs

So Teenage Fanclub was voted top song from the Vol 1 managers, Boo Radleys 2nd, etc etc

We now need to reveal these and the results from the other team juries

The results for each jury will be revealed over a weekend for each feature week

For example

Sat 5pm - Vol 1 results revealed
Sat 7pm - Vol 12
Sun 6pm - Vol 6
Sun 9pm - Vol 20

Therefore 23 results periodically stretching over the weekend

Here is an example of the Week 1 results tweet for the Volume 1 jury at 5pm Saturday as per above

Left side - Table (points will become cumulative)

Top right - jury votes

Bottom right - the 12 point winner

This will be repeated for the 22 other juries over the weekend

And here is an example of the Vol 2 jury votes and cumulative table

Songs in yellow are those that scored points from that jury

(on reflection it seems more logical for the album image to be the voting Jury)

So basically it’s like 10 Eurovision Song Contests over 10 feature weeks with a winner crowned at the end

In the process we’ll get to dig deep into these seminal compilations and listen to some excellent songs while we are at it

Hopefully we’ll have a bit of fun on the way

Should add that in view of In view of amount of work involved behind the the scenes each feature week will be a 2 week cycle

1st week - showcasing the songs
2nd week - voting and results ceremony

We’ve been assessing the schedule carefully and have decided to change this to a 3 week cycle for logistical and time management reasons

We’ll also be adding a couple of extra elements to the programme

Details coming up

Week 1 and Week 2 will be the song reveal weeks and the schedule looks like this with 2 songs revealed each day apart from the last Friday

Just a reminder that each month 23 songs will take part in the contest

Also during these 2 weeks the team managers will be voting behind the scenes their top 10 from the 23 songs and in order to give us their jury results

They will be told the competing songs secretly in advance of Week 1 so they are all given the same amount of time

On the Saturday of each Week 2 we will be hosting a special Virtual #i40social on Mixlr, broadcasting all 23 finalist songs in a DJ set

Chat is available so people can discuss the songs, their predictions etc

Should make for a great party

The weekend of Week 3 will be the contest ceremony. The big climax

The preceding weekdays will be taken up with our admin in preparation of the ceremony. But we do have something extra planned during that admin period...

We are delighted to announce that @durutti74 will be producing an event programme ahead of the final ceremony, which will be a synopsis and his own personal insights into each of the final 23 songs

Huge thanks to him for undertaking this throughout the whole feature

For the final ceremony itself this will take place throughout the weekend with the results of each Volume’s jury being revealed each hour

Here is the planned schedule for the weekend ceremony

That’s pretty much it as far the format goes. If it doesn’t now it will eventually make sense

This is by far the most ambitious interactive feature we have ever done

It will be with us for over 10 months but will be well worth it if you consider what we are covering....

The Indie Top 20 was released consistently between 1987 and 1996 with 2 to 3 volumes released each year

The compliations featured some of the finest songs of that era and we will be embarking on a musical journey of a seminal period in music that soundtracked our lives

From Wedding Present’s Peel Session of “You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends” on Volume 1 to Underworld’s “Born Slippy” on Volume 23 this feature will be a snapshot of an era in full panoramic mode

It’s going to be immense