Ranking procedure for country singles to be changed

Billboard, the influential music industry trade magazine, is changing the way it ranks songs on its country singles chart after concerns that the old system allowed promoters to manipulate the rankings.

“It’s a change we’ve been contemplating for years, and it follows at least a year of very close scrutiny of the charts,” said Wade Jessen, director of Billboard’s country charts.

Until this month, a song’s position on the weekly Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart was determined by the number of spins, or plays, it received on 122 radio stations monitored by Billboard. The size of the station’s listening audience or the time of day didn’t matter – a 3 a.m. broadcast in Jackson, Tenn., counted the same as a 5 p.m. broadcast in Chicago.

But beginning with Billboard’s Jan. 15 issue, songs on the country chart will be ranked by “audience impressions,” or the number of people who actually hear them.

Not only will the value of a spin vary by market, it will vary by time of day depending on how many people are listening.

“It switches from a most-played chart to a most-heard chart,” Jessen said.

Billboard already uses the method to compile some of its other radio charts, including Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop.

Before the change, record labels and promoters were able to buy relatively cheap, late-night air time on small market radio stations to boost a song’s total plays and move it up the chart – momentum signified by a “bullet” that often translated to more airplay and record sales.

The sponsored spins, commonly called “spot buys” and “spin programs,” are similar to TV infomercials and permitted under Federal Communications Commission rules, provided they are clearly identified as paid advertisements.

“We don’t believe chart performance, especially in terms of the No. 1 record, should be fought and won on all-night shows in the smallest markets in the country,” Jessen said.

A recent example was MCA Nashville’s promotion of Reba McEntire’s single, “Somebody.” The label purchased spot buys for the song with the syndicated radio show “After Midnite,” which is heard on nearly 300 radio stations; Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which owns more than 200 stations in 24 states; and Entercom, which owns stations in 21 markets, including Boston, Seattle and New Orleans.

The song reached No. 1 on the country singles chart the week of Aug. 7 with an unusually large gain of 1,150 spins from the previous week, Jessen said.

Scott Borchetta, promotion chief for MCA, Mercury and Dreamworks, defended the strategy in the trade publication Music Row, saying “Somebody” did receive help but reached No. 1 on its own merits.

The practice isn’t unique to country music. Last year, rocker Avril Lavigne’s label, RCA, purchased overnight air time on Nashville top 40 station WQZQ to promote her single “Don’t Tell Me.”

Some Nashville record label executives worry that the shift from a spin-based to audience-based chart will hurt new artists, who often gain early momentum through spins during off-hours.

“A lot of times new artists break out on nights and overnights. Now, those spins won’t mean as much,” said Butch Waugh, executive vice president of RCA Label Group Nashville.

Waugh also says ballads, a mainstay of country radio, will have a harder time cracking the chart under the new system.

“They are the last songs to go into morning drive,” he said. “So, you’re kind of being penalized if you are a new artist, or if you have a ballad. And if you’re a new artist with a ballad, you really have a hard time breaking into the system.”