| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2693.1 | | SALSA::MOELLER | ps -axl | grep xroach | kill -9 | Tue Aug 06 1991 12:56 | 4 |
| I know some folks in music marketing, and farkling the Billboard chart
is (was?) a full-time profession for some folks.
karl
|
| 2693.2 | Yo, kid, I'll give you a buck to buy this CD for me | PENUTS::HNELSON | Hoyt 275-3407 C/RDB/SQL/X/Motif | Mon Aug 12 1991 14:35 | 6 |
| I assume that the point-of-sale data collection occurs at a *sample* of
stores? If the sample size isn't too big, they could still farkle (good
word!) the chart by sending in agents to buy several copies from each
sample store. They'd recycle the albums, of course, so the expense
would be the retail mark-up (50%?). That's probably a LOT cheaper than
bribing with advertising subsidies, etc.
|
| 2693.3 | | QRYCHE::STARR | Spontaneity has its time and place. | Mon Aug 12 1991 17:17 | 10 |
| > I assume that the point-of-sale data collection occurs at a *sample* of
> stores?
Actually, I don't believe this is true. In most cases, all the stores in the
various chains will be tied into the system. This isn't really that hard, as
most of them already have these systems in place for inventory control and
ordering. Its just a matter of SoundScan (is that the company?) to tie into
the existing systems....
alan
|
| 2693.4 | but can you dance to it? | EZ2GET::STEWART | Balanced on the biggest wave | Mon Aug 12 1991 19:03 | 13 |
|
From what I've heard, L. Ron Hubbard's followers gimmick up the numbers
the same way. Every time another of those books appear they are
assigned to buy a couple of copies at each bookstore in the area. I
doubt that the followers of N.W.A. (or any other recent chart-topper)
are that organized, though...
I think, that after some initial adjustments, we'll get used to the new
system; maybe borrow some moving-average technology from the stock
market technicians to decide whether we really like a given piece of
software...
|
| 2693.5 | The UK has it now | FORTY2::ASH | Grahame Ash @REO | Thu Aug 15 1991 05:37 | 27 |
| A similar system to this has been in use here in the UK for a few years now.
The data is collected by Gallup, up until closing time on a Saturday, and the
results are fed to the BBC by Sunday afternoon so that the new chart can be
broadcast.
Initially there were worries about keeping secret which shops were 'chart
shops' but these days it seems that, as someone has said, all shops in the big
chains are hooked up. I don't know how amny 'independent' shpos participate.
Over the recent past I've detected changes in the UK chart. It is MUCH faster
moving than the US charts. It's common for a record to enter the chart in the
Top 5, but only spend 4-5 weeks in the 40! I've put this down to the band's
hardcore support being the only ones who buy it!
But there may have been two changes to the charts which contribute - one being
the more accurate data collection, and the other being, maybe, a much lower
volume of sales. Of course much less records are sold here than in the US, but
it seems that fewer people here are buying singles these days. How else could
you explain the enormous number of songs which make the charts in the first
week of release and which haven't had saturation airplay? Unfortunately the
record companies are extremely reluctant to release actual sales volumes so
I've no proof.
It'll be interesting to see if the Billboard chart behaviour changes. (And it
MUST be better than that abomination of basing charts on radio airplay!!)
grahame
|
| 2693.6 | checks and balances | MAJTOM::ROBERT | | Thu Aug 15 1991 12:27 | 11 |
|
Seeing that top sellers, sell in the 100,000's to even millions, I find it
hard to believe they could hire enough 'agents', to buy enough copies to make that
that much of a difference?! Am I wrong?
Wasn't earlier reported tallies ever compared to how many copies were
actually sent to that particular store/chain. ie. Wouldn't they find it
wierd that a store said they sold 200 copies when they only had 100 to begin
with!?
-Tom
|
| 2693.7 | | PIANST::JANZEN | Synthetic Virtuoso | Thu Aug 15 1991 12:42 | 18 |
| >
> Seeing that top sellers, sell in the 100,000's to even millions, I find it
> hard to believe they could hire enough 'agents', to buy enough copies to make that
> that much of a difference?! Am I wrong?
Only certain stores were sampled. If you knew which store, you could go there
and buy 5. Those 5 there represented thousands at stores not in the survey.
Also record store employees could misrepresent the numbers.
>
> Wasn't earlier reported tallies ever compared to how many copies were
> actually sent to that particular store/chain. ie. Wouldn't they find >it
> wierd that a store said they sold 200 copies when they only had 100 to begin
> with!?
Only the record company would know that, and it would be in their interest
to let it slide, or just never audit it. You'd have to audit the reports
against the record-company's orders filled, and there isn't anyone chartered
to do that I think.
>-Tom
|
| 2693.8 | ... | NUTELA::CHAD | Chad, ZKO Computer Resources | Thu Aug 15 1991 16:33 | 11 |
|
A recent article in ROLLING STONE magazine said that there are
currently about 7500 stores hooked up and doing the samples.
There was some concern that many of the big name chains like
Strawberries, Tower (I think) and others weren't hooked up.
A lot of the stores were department type stores and stuff..
Chad
|
| 2693.9 | | QRYCHE::STARR | Spontaneity has its time and place. | Fri Aug 16 1991 09:41 | 12 |
| > There was some concern that many of the big name chains like
> Strawberries, Tower (I think) and others weren't hooked up.
They weren't from Day One, but most of the big chains either are now hooked
in, or are under contract to be hooked in soon. Tower has signed on already,
Strawberries will be very shortly, and Lechmere was just hooked in this
week. Billboard usually has a weekly story on the latest hookups.
BTW, as I mentioned earlier, this is NOT a sampling-type system. They are
taking real numbers of total units sold in ALL stores to get these figures!
alan
|
| 2693.10 | | RICKS::SHERMAN | ECADSR::SHERMAN 225-5487, 223-3326 | Fri Aug 16 1991 11:12 | 5 |
| It occurs to me that this discussion may be moot as far as we're
concerned. I mean, what are OUR chances of having independent albums
carried by Tower, Strawberries or Lechmere? Grumble, grumble ... ;^)
Steve
|
| 2693.11 | | SALSA::MOELLER | real boats rock | Fri Aug 16 1991 13:08 | 16 |
| Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had an article about the Billboard
system and the small company that aggressively chased the charting
business - basically they solved the data connect/formatting problems
with each large chain FIRST and then approached Billboard, who dumped
their own data collection 'system'. The goal is to also sell the
massaged data back to record companies - something the individual
retail chains aren't equipped to do.
<<< Note 2693.10 by RICKS::SHERMAN "ECADSR::SHERMAN 225-5487, 223-3326" >>>
>...I mean, what are OUR chances of having independent albums
>carried by Tower, Strawberries or Lechmere? Grumble, grumble ... ;^)
Steve, I'll let you know..
karl
|