Over

3/25/1994

Last week, several major record companies changed the way they’ve been doing business for the past decade and in the process, effectively changed the way the industry as a whole will do business in the future.

For years, record companies have paid independent record promoters for records added on radio stations depending on their status in Radio And Records. Independent record promoters were paid on a sliding scale based solely on the “Parallel System.”

No longer.

Independent budgets have been slashed and a sliding pay scale has been developed, depending only on market size and the number of times a record is actually played. The new criterion seems to be an independent record promoter will be paid for working a particular station when the record has been played at least 14 times over a two-week period.

How will this affect radio? If you’re not getting compensation from an independent record promoter, the effect won’t be immediately apparent. If you’re a radio station whose budget is augmented by regular payments from an independent record promoter in return for a working relationship, the effect will be immediate and drastic.

Basically, you can kiss that kiss you’ve been getting good-bye.

The budgets for independent projects within record companies are being redirected and reduced. This affects the compensation many radio stations have been receiving from independent record promoters. That compensation will be drastically reduced and, in many instances, eliminated completely.

Times have changed…for the better. Reality is now reality. Paper adds aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. It’s what you play and how many times you play it. And R&R status is meaningless.

If you aren’t represented by an independent record promoter, how are you affected? Your status with the record companies and the resultant perks and promotions they are capable of providing, will depend on airplay and relationships.

The playlist chart, the all-important subjective record ranking that has long been a staple of the record business and a thorn in the side of radio programmers, is an Edsel. The industry no longer cares.

It’s about time, isn’t it?

The industry is interested only in how many times a record is played. As radio programmers, it makes our job much easier. If you’re using one of the many music scheduling software systems, a punch of a button prints out a historical ranking of actual airplay. No more guesswork on your part. No more hours spent figuring out if a song should move from #11 to #7 and what should do down to make room for it. You don’t have to worry about those Tuesday afternoon calls asking for a three-point jump on your playlist. The industry wants reality.

To paraphrase Dick Vitale, “It’s PPWs, baby!”

As we’ve trumped before, your Plays Per Week have always been important to The Network Forty. We’ve been printing PPWs for over two years. Now that this method has become an industry standard, PPWs are all the more important. If you’re in a BDS market, your airplay is monitored already. Supplying your PPWs is necessary because your listing of actual plays supplements BDS data, throws out sampling of records played during syndicated shows and lists titles of some songs BDS might not sample. It is the only way for you to control the accurate information flow based on what you’re broadcasting. Plus, more and more, the record industry will use your PPWs to determine the success or failure of those records on your radio station.

If you aren’t tracking PPWs and you are not monitored by BDS, you’re out in the cold. It is no longer just okay to supply PPWs to the industry. It’s imperative.

The Network Forty is proud to have been the early champion Plays Per Week. It is especially gratifying to see the industry accepts the data as a benchmark. As other trade magazines struggle to catch up, The Network Forty will continue to publish the most accurate and in-depth analysis of Plays Per Week available. It’s easier for us. With your help, we’ve been doing it for years.

Our special Charts pull-outs supply all the information you need. You’ll find a listing of the 40 most played titles in the nation side-by-side with our Retail Chart, the national Top 40 in album sales. On the flip side, you’ll find The Next 40 ranked by PPWs, the most-added records of the week and the most-requested songs in the nation. This overview is complemented by a statistical breakout of each category (PPWs by region, analysis of the leading retail records and requests by individual stations) inside each issue.

The Network Forty has the most accurate listing of national and regional airplay available. Our list of PPW stations is deeper than any other available source. Other trade magazines are just now beginning to compile this type of research. Plays Per Week is an original concept of The Network Forty and we’ve had two years to get it right. We’ve worked hard to make PPWs a concept accepted by the industry as a whole and we will continue to make The Network Forty information the most accurate available to the radio and record communities.

Excuse us for blowing our own horn (it’s a lead pipe cinch R&R isn’t gonna do it), but with our reporters’ continued input, we are committed to making The Network Forty your magazine for the ‘90s…and beyond.