CMJ ISSUE 1310 WEEK 33

For those of you that do not yet follow me on twitter (@theanimalarrg )  you might of missed this on Monday.  What I found to be the worst use of a CMJ Official ADD spot in quite some time. If I were to of kept track over the years of every instance of the worst adds I could say this is in fact THE worst but It is for sure One of the worst.

1. BLOUSE Shadow 2. BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE Forgiveness Rock Record

Keep in mind this is for this weeks ADD week.   

Let's start with the fact they only added 2 records.  On top of that they added a record that is OVER THREE YEARS OLD 

WHAT??

Every week there are a bunch of stations that, for whatever reason, ADD old records. There were plenty of those this week. I saw one for Tera Melos a 4 month old record.   There are always a bunch for the records that went for ADDS the week previous as well as a bunch for those that are going for adds next week. Why? I have no idea.  As I have mentioned a hundred thousand times the only time ADDing a record helps an artist is when it is on the ADD week.  So while you felt the need to add last weeks ADD or next weeks it in fact helped no one. Not the Artist. The Label. The promoter or even your station are helped by this.  While adding a record THREE YEARS after it came out is way more asinine than adding last weeks add again, adding last weeks add is still dumb.   

I really would love to save this message for when more of you are back, as I know a lot are coming back over the next few weeks, doing ADDS can be a bit confusing but it does not have to be.   

Other promoters and labels have expressed the same frustration to me as well.  One of my label friends was tweeting about this earlier yesterday and I thought I would share their words. I like to keep things anonymous, unless they ask me to say who they are later though. 

" I think it's annoying when people go off add date (esp early!) but it's technically a suggestion and pretty industry-sided... The fact that a station adds on the add date is a professional courtesy, really. It's part of the deal you have with stations... And it's a largely unspoken deal, esp. for young and new DJs and MDs. So if they don't get it, explain it to them."

And maybe that is part of the problem.  Maybe ADDS have not been explained. If that is the case just ask any one of your promoters and I am sure they are more than willing to let you know the proper way of doing them.   

The reason I started with that this week is because more than ever each add week is decided by under 5 adds.  So If that stations that added Terra Melos, Broken Social Scene or Islands would of added an ADD that was actually adding this week then maybe we would have a different #1 than we have. 

This weeks race was, from start to finish, one of the closest I have seen. The biggest lead I ever saw by either Ty Segall or No Age was 3 adds.  It was clear from the start that it was going to be one of these two records.   What I thought was crazy was just how many people added Both records. With 217 reporters and each record getting over 100 adds. There were 116 stations that added both of them.  Only 38 stations added neither.  That leads just 63 stations deciding who was going to be champion. 

In the end Ty Segall won  33-30 out of those remaining ADDS.  Overall it was 149-146.  But both records getting almost 70% of the ADDS is pretty nuts.  

So where does that leave us for the charts. Clearly both of these records have a chance at #1 over the next few weeks.  The charts are going to start to change pretty dramatically over the next few weeks as stations gone for the summer come back and pretty much ignore a good portion of the records that went for adds in the summer and focus on new records.  So the newer records are going to shoot up the chart VERY FAST. 

We saw that this week with Superchunk, last weeks #1 add. They come in this week at #4 having debuted last week at #151. Now the question is do they have a shot at #1?  And how about Polyphonic Spree coming in at #6 from last weeks #25?   It is a fun question to ponder with both these records. 

We knew Washed Out was going to take #1 this week as they should of had it last week. So what happens now. Does washed out continue to get stronger? That does typically happen when a record gets to #1. Or because of the timing of the record does NO AGE or TY Segall try and push for #1 now.  And what about Superchunk??? So very exciting! 

I can tell you it will be No Age, Ty Segall, Washed out or Superchunk in the #1 spot next week.  

The question I ask myself now is can Superchunk fit into that window?  It depends on a few things. 

If Washed Out remains the biggest priority for the people pushing it I think it stays there. However if the focus changes, too early, to getting No Age up there will that open the window enough for Superchunk to fit in for a week?  It's possible but Everything has to go right for that to happen.  The wildcard here is that there are two indies on Superchunk and if they are on the same page the chances go up a lot.   

I said "too early" before because I think without trying No Age and Ty Segall could be both in the top 5 next week. But I don't think even with huge pushes they can gain enough stations to get to #1. So I would just let them do what they are going to do and then go for the top spot in two weeks.  However I would start saying "going for #1" because the more you say it the more people hear it and the better chance you have.   

If I had to make a guess for next week I would say Washed out #1 Superchunk #2   with Ty Segall and No Age coming somewhere in the 3-7 range of things.  Then in 2 weeks one of them #1. 

What do you guys think?