CMJ ISSUE 1377 Week 4 Recap

Hello, I am very excited as it seems that loads of you are coming back each week. The number of reporters has increased by at least 20 each week so far this year, however we are significantly behind last years pace. This week we had 251 reporters at this time last year we had 284. Last year seemed to stay on par with the year before but it is striking to have such a drop off so far. Hopefully it is only temporary.

This week was a bit of a surprise as I thought Sleater-Kinney would take over the number one spot rather easily. Panda Bear was able to hold on though despite having less reporters. So next week should be easy for them to take the spot. The question then becomes who takes it next.   There is currently a 40 station gap between #2 and #3. The #3 through #5 records though all have about the same amount.  Viet Cong, The Decemberists and Ty Segall.

 The one to watch for though might be this weeks #1 add Bjork.  I was surprised to see though that Bjork, despite her current popularity has not hit #1 in quite some time. 2011 Biophilia was able to snag most added but was eventually blocked by numerous records. 2007 Volta peaked at #2. You have to go all the way back to 2004 with Medúlla     It should be fun to see what happens with Bjork/ Sleater-Kinney/ Decembrists. There is of course a chance all could get to #1 but like the surprise of Bjork this past week there are sure to be other things on the way we might not even know about.

Lastly I wanted get your opinions on combining records. We do this at Pirate, so I am by no means trying to single anyone out. This week though I noticed that one of the Ty Segall records disappeared from the chart. Last week there were 2 in the top 20 and this week just the one in the top 5. So I started wondering at what point does combining the records not make sense?  For example currently we have the new Dr. Dog live album at college radio. If we were to have a new Dr. Dog full record come out at what point does it not make sense to combine the 2. 1 month? 2 months?   We also recently worked the Mike Doughty record and as a precursor sent out the live album. We had the 2 combined as to maximize the impact of one record. There is no doubt that is what is being done with Ty Segall.  The reason it caught my attention is because there were 2 on there last week and then only one this week. Last week it made sense to me that there were 2 as they are on different labels.   I just wanted to get your opinions on this.  I asked CMJ about it and they said they take each situation as it comes up.  Is that enough? Or should there be a uniform rule?

I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on this! Lets talk on twitter