EYE ON THE CHARTS

Los Angeles, CA - The charts of New Music Weekly are the heart and soul of the publication. Reports from radio programmers come to us each and everyday, and it is always a thrill to see how all the songs do when our Tuesday deadline comes around. Whether its the new singles that are just getting started, or songs trying to make the top of the charts, it’s always a mystery on how it will all play out at the end of the day. One thing that is for sure is that the music promoters are out there in "full force" trying to make sure that their releases do well. It becomes pretty much a battle each and every week, and only the strong survive.

From the past days of our spins system to the new and much improved STS, New Music Weekly has always provided a very valuable tool that enables us to reflect the movement and action all releases both major and independent. This has always been our quest at "leveling the playing field" and we have been doing just that. In fact, in this new era of the "independent" being the wave of the future, you can say that we have been on the cutting edge of this "new music revolution" from the very beginning.

Some of the major trade publications tend to keep a pretty safe chart. For many of them, there is little movement and you will find the same list of songs moving at a snails pace. That is not the case here at NMW as our charts are fast moving which allows for us to keep the music fresh. That is why in some major markets you keep hearing the same old thing day after day, week after week. With the "playing it safe" mentality, you will eventually drive your audience away via sheer boredom. It still drives us crazy here in Los Angeles when we hear stations announce "new music", when it’s a song that we have had on our charts six months past. If the major market stations continue to lead only with the major’s material, they will be in a real jam. You will find audiences running off to other choices, and that has been what we are seeing more and more as of late.

The fact that the small handful of other music trade publications still snarl at the fact that stations report to us is a real joke. What difference should it make to other trade magazine who reports to whom? The entire focus here is to simply provide valuable and pertinent information that can help a music or program director make choices. If they are not aware of a certain release, or if that information is not brought to their attention, then the artist or band is being left "out in the cold".

There is no doubt that small and medium market stations are the lifeblood of the publication. More times than most, it is literally impossible to break a single out of a major market. You need the smaller, medium market stations to help start and "build the story". Even the major labels are looking more towards "upstream" deals these days. They no longer have the budgets or the man power to go out and search for new talent. What they are doing is making deals with independents that have gotten their program started at radio. The first thing many of the top executives are asking is "what’s the story". The "story" most all of the time is how an artist or band is fairing at the smaller radio market level. There are a number of artists in the process of making some major upper level deals based on the chart activity from the pages of New Music Weekly.

The new Indie charts have been a real winner for us and seem to one of our most popular features. It’s great to have the station "snapshot" back and that provides a closer look at the stations themselves. Our new regional breakdown is also getting raves for it provides a better overview of how certain artists are doing in various parts of the nation. We are also not only getting strong reports from stations here is the US, but from all around the world. New Music Weekly will continue to lead the charge in this on going and ever strong "new music revolution" and has we do so we can promise once again that the "best is yet to come". We had a very busy weekend covering "Jack’s First Concert" at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater featuring Billy Idol, Journey, Cheap Trick and Def Leppard (how about that lineup for one show?). You’ll find more on this amazing event in this and future issues.