CMJ RECAP ISSUE 1349 WEEK 24

I don't know about you but I have a bad case of World Cup fever! And judging from the amount of stations that were actually around on Monday I am going to go ahead and guess that a lot of you do as well!

We keep on hovering around the same amount of stations at college radio with the last 3 weeks being 216, 223 and 225 reporters, but the overall pool for these last three weeks is around 270 so there seem to be a different 50 or so stations taking a break every week.  Sure does make it hard to get any traction at college radio.  I know I would not be in either if I did not have to be. Summer is the time to be outside.

This week The Black Keys held on to the #1 spot and I thought that we would see Parquet Courts making a run at #2 but Conor Oberst held strong there holding Parquet Courts to the #3 spot. The big move, as expected was Jack White coming in at #5.  Will be interesting to watch what happens with these 4 records next week. There are many factors at play.

The newest record usually has the best chance, so you have to like Jack Whites chances to make a run at #1.   What could complicate that is that Parquet Courts is only a week older and seems to have a tad more hype going for it.  I thought that Conor Oberst would be out of the picture at this point but he had a strong showing and seems to be that companies major priority.
I liked Parquet Courts going into this week and still think they have a good shot. Stations playing Jack White are most likely going to be playing Black Keys so that could negate any edge Jack white could get.  It gets tricky too when pushing 2 records for #1, sometimes you have to make a choice as to what baby you like more.   The last thing is that Black Keys continues to gain stations and in the summer it can get harder to push off big name records off peoples charts. So we could just see them stick around because of laziness on the part of stations reporting.

This weeks ADDS were no real contest with The Antlers blowing away the competition beating the #2 most added record by 40 ADDS.  The Antlers were also the first 100+ add record since the Black Keys.  I doubt we see a jump like we saw with the Black Keys as they have not debuted yet and a #2 debut would be historic.  But you have to think they are in the mix in the next few weeks.

Summertime can extend the life of a record by a few weeks so who knows maybe all of these records go #1 but I would find that very surprising.

If you have any questions or comments lets talk about them on  twitter.

CMJ RECAP ISSUE 1348, WEEK 23

Summer is a funny time. We lose anywhere from 50-100 stations but it is never the same stations week after week.  So you could have a record that gains 3 stations from the previous week but along with those 3 you have a return of 10-15 stations that might of not reported the week before and a loss of the same that decided not to report that week. So 3 ends up being a significant number.  More than any other time of year every station matters and yet its the hardest time to get in touch with anyone and even harder to get them to report on a regular basis.  

This week my eye was fixed on Parquet Courts as I wanted to see what they would do their first week out. Would they have they type of week the Black Keys or Thee Oh Sees had or would they be more in the Conor Oberst area.  They ended up coming in at #8 on the top 200, pretty good for a first week.  The big moves came from Conor Oberst, jumping from #8 to #2 and Sharon Van Etten going to #3 from #5.   Lykke Li surprisingly dropped from #3 to #6. I really thought they had a chance to push for #1 considering the history of her on the charts.   

The Orwells and Clap your hands say yeah also had great debuts coming in at #14 and #17.  I would really take a LOT for either one of them to get to #1 But if Sharon Van Etten can start at #22 and methodically work her way up to the top 5 no reason they can't.  

The Jack White record took #1 most added pretty easily but I was surprised it did not get over 100 adds. Last week when Parquet Courts got under 100 adds I thought it might be due to CMJ crashing.  

IN looking at it now compared to this week it looks like the CMJ crash of last monday had little to no impact on the charts.  Last week there were 216 reporters, This week there were 223.   Last week there were 191 ADD reporters, this week 201 so really not a huge increase.  If you look at percentages over the last 2 weeks then Parquet courts had the better week with 51% stations adding them while Jack White had only 46%. If we go back to the Black Keys week they had 54% . I would consider 50% to be that somewhat magic number to reach for on adds if you want to project to going #1.  I won't say you can't do it if you don't get 50% but it sure does help.  

So that brings us to a pretty exciting next few weeks I think.  We have The Black Keys at #1. Connor Oberst at #2, Sharon Van Etten at #3 then we have Parquet Courts charting at #8 and this weeks #1 most added Jack White most likely landing somewhere in the top 10 next week.  Should be a lot of fun to watch what happens. In the Fall and Spring most records reach their peak amount of stations in the 3rd week after going for adds before starting to trail off.  So we are entering that week for all of the top 3 records.  But then you have to consider who is working what. Having 2 records that both have a chance at #1 is a hard position to be in as you don't want to misplay your hand and get neither.  

Should be fun to watch!  Lets talk about it on the internets, hit me up on Twitter! 

CMJ RECAP ISSUE 1347, WEEK 22

Summer is usually the time where it feels like nothing exciting happens. Not this week! We had our first CMJ CRASH since... well... a LONG time.  Yet despite CMJ being down most of the day Monday we still got up to 216 reporters. Not that 216 is a LOT by any means but it is above last weeks Memorial day low of 214.  I am sure it had some impact on the charts but to say what kind is difficult.  Hopefully it does not go down again but it is good to know that there are still a good number of stations that will wait it out or get their reports in early.

There was a LOT of change up on the top end of the charts.  Chromeo, Conor Oberst, La Sera, Sharon Van Etten all jumped into the top 10. Lykee Li jumped into the top 5 and we have a new number one with the Black Keys taking #1.

Lykee Li looks poised for a run at #1 next week and Sharon Van Ettens Jump from 22 to 5 is very impressive with a jump of 35 stations.

Things should start to get interesting with this weeks #1 most added Parquet Courts, the debut this week was not as high as we have seen from the likes of Thee Oh Sees and Black Keys recently but I still think this should be considered a contender in the weeks to come.

It should be fun to watch what happens, the margins right now are so small that really any of those records on the move might think they have a chance at #1 and will continue to push for it until they get it or until they get passed.  We have mentioned it before but a lot of these stations charts look alike so sometimes it comes down to chart position and in the summer its more difficult than ever to try and manipulate these positions.

So yeah. FUN.

Lets talk about it on twitter.