COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 47. CMJ ISSUE 1420

One more week left!!!!! I am so happy that I do not have a horse in this top of the charts race. 

Just look at this top 7. 

1	2	4	1	4	KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD	Paper Mache Dream Balloon	ATO
2	4	3	2	5	JOANNA NEWSOM	Divers	Drag City
3	5	11	3	4	GRIMES	Art Angels	4AD
4	1	1	1	7	NEON INDIAN	Vega Intl Night School	Mom And Pop
5	3	2	2	7	DEERHUNTER	Fading Frontier	4AD
6	6	9	6	6	BEACH HOUSE	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Sub Pop
7	7	10	7	5	FUZZ	II	In The Red

I thought by now Grimes or Beach House would be number one but King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have slowly just climbed their way to the top.  But Joanna Newsom was close as was Grimes. The thing now though is getting through to anyone becomes more difficult. The end of the year means less new records to push out the old ones. It also means more exams for the students out there. 

Again, I am very happy I don't have to worry about pushing for #1 right now it would be way to frustrating. 

I am not even going to talk about ADDs today. 

I will but only to tell you why I am not talking about them. 

This was reported as a Top Five: 

1. CHRIS BROWN X

2. N' SYNC No Strings Attached

3. JUSTIN BIEBER Purpose

4. RIHANNA Hard

5. FETTY WAP Fetty Wap

And a Single Got #1 most added. 

Next week is the last week. Lets talk about your favorite records of the year. 

Maybe next week we will go over the whole year instead of or in addition to next weeks chart. 

Hit me up on Twitter to discuss these and other things. 

Thanks for reading. 

doug

 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 45, CMJ ISSUE 1418

Three more reporting weeks left in the year! So very exciting. Judging from what I heard from music directors this week there will be quite a few of you "phoning it in" next week with Thanksgiving. The end of the year is an interesting time. The number of big records coming in has slowed down but there are still enough from a few weeks ago that are pushing towards the top. This time of year the longevity of the record tends to be a bit longer. Where as most of the year you see a peak in week 4 or 5 you could see one as late as week 6 or 7 because there are not as many big records coming up to push the old ones out.

I mention all this because these next three weeks could be a lot of fun. The last 3 have been pretty fun with a new #1 record each of the last three weeks. This week, in honor of Thanksgiving maybe? Neon Indian took the top spot. It would not shock me if they are one and done as well.

Lets take a look at the top of the charts.

1	5	7	1	5	NEON INDIAN	Vega Intl Night School	Mom And Pop
2	3	4	2	5	DEERHUNTER	Fading Frontier	4AD
3	8	20	3	3	JOANNA NEWSOM	Divers	Drag City
4	19	-	4	2	KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD	Paper Mache Dream Balloon	ATO
5	2	1	1	6	CHVRCHES	Every Open Eye	Glassnote
6	6	6	6	7	NEW ORDER	Music Complete	Mute
7	1	2	1	5	PROTOMARTYR	The Agent Intellect	Hardly Art
8	7	5	3	7	KURT VILE	B'lieve I'm Goin Down...	Matador
9	10	85	9	4	BEACH HOUSE	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Sub Pop
10	11	27	10	3	FUZZ	II	In The Red
11	114	-	11	2	GRIMES	Art Angels	4AD

Now lets only look at the records that are moving up or are steady

1	5	7	1	5	NEON INDIAN	Vega Intl Night School	Mom And Pop
2	3	4	2	5	DEERHUNTER	Fading Frontier	4AD
3	8	20	3	3	JOANNA NEWSOM	Divers	Drag City
4	19	-	4	2	KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD	Paper Mache Dream Balloon	ATO
6	6	6	6	7	NEW ORDER	Music Complete	Mute
9	10	85	9	4	BEACH HOUSE	Thank Your Lucky Stars	Sub Pop
10	11	27	10	3	FUZZ	II	In The Red
11	114	-	11	2	GRIMES	Art Angels	4AD

That still leaves us with 8 records.  I could totally see Deerhunter, Joanna Newsom or King Gizzard make that jump to #1 next week. I could also see Beach House or Grimes doing it. 

So lets predict what the last week of the year will look like. So in 3 weeks what is the #5 record on the charts? 

It could be something not currently in the top 11, but I have to think most of the records out there currently are not capable of such a jump. 

But if you want to consider this weeks #1 most added Givers as having a shot at top five by the end of the year , I would disagree with only 82 adds, it doesn't scream contender ( or it could be another Bully, what do I know) 

So in no order I think the top five records to end the year are: Beach House, Grimes, King Gizzard, Deerhunter and Joanna Newsom.   I feel pretty good about predicting Grimes and Beach House in there but I would not be shocked if Neon Indian hangs around as well. 

So just to put it out there here is what I think the top five looks like to end the year.

1) Grimes

2) Joanna Newsom

3)Beach House

4) King Gizzard

5) Deerhunter

What do you guys think? Send me your top five Doug at Piratepirate dot com Or on Twitter  and I will put it up here and we can look back in 3 weeks. 

Have a great Thanksgiving! Talk to you all in 2 weeks. 

Doug

CMJ RECAP WEEK 44 CMJ ISSUE 1417

Thank you for all the emails about last week's post! Glad you guys dug it. I am more than happy to share any stories of bad promoting if you have them as well. Let's keep everyone honest!

 So I guess I was wrong about Deerhunter. I really thought after last weeks move from #12 to #4 that it would slide back down but no it keeps charging ahead. Powered mostly by large stations and high chart numbers. If there were still a CORE chart I bet it would be #1.  Neon Indian also busts into the top 5 and Chvrches slides out of the top spot after only 2 weeks.

Some of the more interesting things on the chart though for me are the 2 Beach House records. The new one is at #10 and the old former #1 is at #15. I have no idea what is going to happen here. I guess at this point there are too many stations playing both to take one out of the system so will the old one hold back the new one?

I spend a lot of time talking about the top of the chart because getting #1 is the goal but another goal is longevity on the charts.  So lets take a look at some of the longest running records out there.

At the top we have Twenty One Pilots. 24 weeks on the top 200 at this point!

They are currently at #168 and peaked at #13. Most of the stations charting the record have charts littered with older records. One of these stations is even charting the first Weezer record. In 2015. Drives me crazy but what can you do.  I might just go for adds on the Beach Boys Pet sounds next week because ... why not.   Anyways so 24 weeks on the chart thats a LONG time. That means this record went for adds 6 months ago.

Does your station have a cut off for how long a record can be played. I know some out there do. My old station we had an 8 week rotation. Sometimes shorter during the busy time of year.  Even then I was tired of some of the "new stuff" after two months. I would be curious to hear thoughts from the stations out there. Should there be a limit or should it just be up to the stations. I would be in favor of a limit at say 12 weeks. Three months is way more than generous.

Something I have not done in a while is take a look at the last record on the charts.

This week we have Dave Rawlings Machine. They peaked at #150 and have had 3 weeks on the chart. They are currently at #200 with .02% of the stations.  So they have a a bit to go for #1.

Adds this week were a run away with Grimes the only one with over 100 adds. This seems like such a college radio record I would be shocked if it did not get #1 Kind of perfect timing as well. All the records currently in the top 10 should be dying down by the time this makes it up there. So if Grimes does not make #1 by the end of the year I would say it easily gets it at the start of next year.

Ok lets talk on twitter. Thanks for reading!

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO. CMJ ISSUE 1416 WEEK 43

Never a dull moment here in college radio land.  This time of year is very competitive. You could make the argument that almost every record thats been in the top 10 over the last 2 weeks could be a #1 record at a different time of year. You could even say some of the records from a few weeks back would of made it. 

Foals

Arcs

Fiddler

Destroyer

Metric

Dead weather

Youth Lagoon

Alex G

New Order

Kurt Vile

Deer hunter

Wavves

All would challenge for #1 if not up against each other.  I think the end of really big records for the year is coming but I have been thinking that starting last week. This week King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard joins in the competition but I am thinking the #2 most added Beach House has a better run than them.  

I have never seen this before where a NEW record from the same artist comes out as the OLD record is still being worked. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. 

I remember when Tom Waits had 2 records at the same time on the chart they were treated as separate records. It meant that neither record went to #1 at the time. The common strategy now is to make one record un-reportable so everyone is on the same page with a particular artist.  Both records are currently on the charts this week with the old Beach House coming in at #8 and the new one already at # 85 on the ADD week. If they are combined it should make for an easy path to #1. 

I think the biggest surprise this week was the move of Deerhunter from #12 to #4.  Kind of like what we saw from Kurt Vile a few weeks ago and I am going to guess it sees the same chart arc and stalls out where it is. 

Wavves made a nice move up the charts to #3 but amongst records that have a shot at #1 they have the least amount of the biggest 2 types of stations.  

Neon Indian will also be worth watching this next week. I am not sure how I would handle working 3 records in the top 7 and having each with #1 aspirations. I think I would try to get each a shot at #1 but that also can open the window for other records to sneak in there. There is part of me that might just try and keep #1 with the record I have there.   

I wanted to take a second to talk about how us as promoters promote to you. 

Please do not fall for gross promoter tactics.  If someone is pushing a record to you and you like the record and your station likes the record then great. You should chart it. And if you like that promoter or that record a lot and you want to get it more play so it goes #1 at your station to help out someone there is nothing wrong with that. You are allowed to take concert tickets, vinyl, CD's for your station but because you do you are not promising that the record is going to be #1. But again if you want to help there is nothing wrong with that.  

There are many things that are OK and lots of promoter strategies are harmless and are coming from a good place to help an artist or label. There are some though that are not. 

Do not be threatened by a promoter. If you have 1 record on your station from a promoter than you have one record. If you happen to have 12  then you have 12. Different stations sometimes lean towards different promoters because they push different types of music. But if you are charting 4 and the promoter threatens to remove you from his/her list because you are not charting enough, please do not fall for this line of promotion.  I know I am going to send records to stations where I think it makes sense and I think most will do that regardless of what they threaten. 

Do not be guilted by a promoter. It would mean SO MUCH to this band if they got top 5. It would not. Or maybe it would. It is not your problem. I want every station to do what they think is best for her or his station. Don't worry about us. We will be fine. Every record is going to be the most important record we are working while we are working it. Until the next one. Then that will be. 

So if you have a promoter giving you a huge guilt trip or threatening you, do your best to ignore them,  you are in charge. We are here to help you out though. And most of us are pretty good. Don't fall for the bad ones. 

Thanks for reading

Lets talk on twitter. 

Doug

THIS WEEK IN COLLEGE RADIO.

Sometimes it can be very frustrating to work in College Radio. Working with College students can be a lot of fun but it can become difficult when a new Music Director is never taught by the previous one. Or if there is a new station that starts reporting to CMJ where do they go to learn how to do things?  

Sure I would hope they would come to me, or one of the many other music promoters but often times those stations that are in need of our help do not know we are here to help them.  In the cases we do get in touch with these new people not all of them follow our suggestions because really at this point  that is all they are. Suggestions.  

As far as I can tell there are no written rules when it comes to reporting to CMJ. Sure I know what you can and cannot do because I have been here for a hot minute, but how would a new MD or new station know.   You can search and there is the guide written by Laura from Distiller and of course I have written many things here to try and help people but nothing from CMJ itself. 

Let's just talk about ADDS for a second, once again. 

I could go through and tell you all the adds that don't make sense. But lets just stick to the records I work. 

Front Bottoms, New order (5) , Silversun Pickups (2), Maritime, Editors, Moving Panoramas (2), World is a Beautiful Place and I am no longer afraid to die (2), Son Little (3), Motion City Soundtrack, Arcs 

All got adds this week. That might not seem like a lot but when you are actively pushing an artist that misses the ADDS chart by 7 adds then 19 wrongly added records means a lot.  

This happens every week but this week the absurdity of allowing stations to ADD records that are not going for adds really got to me as one station ADDED a record that went for adds on October 5th. So that alone is not too bad as you can see from the above someone added Arcs this week and that went for adds on SEPTEMBER 7th!!!  But what really got to me about this station was the fact that they had already been charting this record for a week before adding it this week. 

So this station obviously has no idea what they are doing. It is not their fault. There should be either a system that prevents such mistakes on CMJ or at the very least a simple "Welcome to College Radio reporting" page on the CMJ site. If it were me I would just make ADDS that are not going for ADDS unreportable. There problem solved. I would rather have stations not doing adds or adding only 4 records than wasting spaces for records they already have in rotation. 

I am frustrated with having to have this conversation weekly, given that there is an easy fix. I am starting to feel like the old man telling kids to get off their lawn and maybe I am, or maybe we just have this "problem" because there is no clarification from CMJ. At this moment everything I say and will ever say about ADD are suggestions. Suggestions that I think 90% of other promoters would back. 

So why does this even matter? Well adding a record a week late is not the end of the world for sure. It usually just impacts the ADD week but what about the station that ADDEd ARCS this week. Not only does this not help Arcs. It ends up having an impact on so many other records. This station happens to be a big station so them just adding it now means that the Arcs will have a bit of extra time on the chart maybe robbing other records of time on the charts. 

So in leu of there being an official page on the CMJ site let me try and help those of you that may not know.  When doing adds check your promoters/ labels emails to see what is "going for adds" If you don't see it, don't add it. There is also a page on the CMJ site that says "going for adds" most promoters update this with CMJ so check there.  And that is it. Your ADD order does not matter, if you add just one or if you add five does not matter. Just add the right records. This has nothing to do with the type of records you add. Just add them on the right week. 

This has nothing to do with the charts. We can tackle that another time. 

Now on to this weeks charts. 

WE HAVE A NEW #1 Churches takes the #1 spot, pretty much walking up there and taking it. Surely just a placeholder until the next Beach House but lets enjoy this time away from our Beach House overlords.  The next few weeks ( until the new Beach House whenever that may be ) will be interesting with a slew of records that should be jockeying for the #1 spot with Wavves, Protomartyr, Kurt Vile, New Order and lets keep an eye on Deer Hunter and Neon Indian but I would not be shocked to see Chvrches hold it for a while and I would also not be shocked to see 3 or for different #1's. We could finally see some volatility. 

Joanna Newsom ran away with #1 most added with Fuzz right behind. Not sure if either of these will have a shot at #1. In the past Joanna has done well with ADDS but is never really a #1 contender but I hear this record is more accessible so maybe we will see a push. 

We have 6 more reporting weeks left in the year! How many #1's will we have? 

Lets talk on twitter. 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP CMJ ISSUE 1414 WEEK 41

Welcome back everyone. If you were at the CMJ marathon I hope you had a great time. I hope we got to meet up as well. If you were not at CMJ I hope you had a nice break from us promoters.

One thing I have always wondered about the CMJ break is how stations deal with it. Do those spins just disappear? Do you combine them with the next week. Seems like there should be some ground rules given by CMJ in this area but as far as I know there are none.  I would be curious to hear what you do at your station.  I think I would combine the 2 weeks into one.

It is always hard to tell what will happen the week after CMJ, aside from knowing that Beach House will be #1. Last reporting week we had a handful of HUGE adds in Wavves, New Order, Protomartyr and Chvrches if there was a chart last week where do you think they would of been? I think they would look a lot like this weeks so I am leaning towards thinking last week just did not exist at all.

Last reporting week we also had one of our largest reporting weeks since the Spring with 282 reporters and it looked like we were close to cracking that 300 station barrier. Now I am not sure if we would of or not but CMJ had a bit of a breakdown this week sometime around 1pm and did not come back to functionality until early this morning. As a result there were only 235 reporters.  Last years week 41 we had 288 reporters as a comparison.  235 reporters this time of year is pretty ridiculous but it seems to becoming the new new normal.  While the overall number of reporting stations in 2015 is only down by 10 the volume per week seems to be way down.

In 2014 the average number of stations to this point in the year was 260 stations a week.

In 2015 the average number of stations per week is 240.

So 20 less stations are reporting a week on average. It is pretty weird that the overall number of stations is still around the same but that the number choosing to submit charts is down that much.

If you did not report this week or you don't report regularly I would love to know why.

Because CMJ was down a significant amount of time it is hard for me to really look at these charts without thinking what could of been. Chvrches and Beach House are the only 2 records with over 100 stations and everyone from 3-16 are in the 76-85 station range.  So its pretty easy to say that one big station reporting would of made a huge impact on the chart.  Next week it will be interesting to see if which of these records start to stand out.

Neon Indian took #1 most added but with the firepower that is out there now I don't expect any run to the top for them.

We have 7 more reporting weeks left in the year.  What do you think will happen?

Lets talk on Twitter. 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP. CMJ ISSUE 1413 WEEK 40

Week 40! Can you believe there are only 8 more reporting weeks left? Sounds nuts when I write it out.  Next week of course is the CMJ MARATHON! I am looking forward to seeing so many of you there!  If you have not seen I am on a fantastic Panel with some great people ... here is the write up for it

I Am A College Radio Promoter: Ask Me Anything

Wednesday, October 15 | 10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | Dream Downtown - The Gallery The college radio DJ and college radio promoter relationship is an interesting one, ranging from highly contentious debates to meeting up for shows. Promoters are a station’s direct line to the music industry but for a number of reasons, the lines of communication can sometimes be scrambled. We’re giving everyone a chance to clear the air and ask anything (and we mean anything) about the trade from a collection of the best college radio promoter pros out there. Douglas Blake, Co-Founder, Pirate! Hannah Carlen, Radio Director, Secretly Group Shil K. Patel, Head of Radio Promotion, Team Clermont Caroline Shadood, Director of Radio, Mute Jessica Weber, Owner, co-sign
What questions do you have about radio promotion or the industry side of the radio world?


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1E_uTxxq3XNQqCjOFR1cZK1CWcUGtfHuvSA6nf1w8--U/viewform?fbzx=8346962568240166780


If you follow that link above you can ask your own anonymous question for the panel.  I encourage you to ask ANYTHING. Positive/ Negative. Does not matter. Looking forward to answering your questions. 


So how about this Beach House record. This is as impressive of a run I have seen in a long time. The perfect storm of a well reviewed record, lots of hype, great label, and perfect timing. I thought going into this week we would be in line for a new #1 after the CMJ break but I am not so sure. If there were charts next week it would for sure still be #1. However the decline in the number of stations on Beach House has begun. 


So we should keep an eye on Beirut, Battles, Youth Lagoon, Kurt Vile and while there are some others I think those are the ones to look out for.  


Adds were So competitive this week. For the first time in I would say at least 5 years we had 4 records get over 100 adds. 


TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	133	CHVRCHES	Every Open Eye	Glassnote
2	120	PROTOMARTYR	The Agent Intellect	Hardly Art
3	108	NEW ORDER	Music Complete	Mute
4	102	WAVVES	V	Ghostramp-WBR


The question now is how many of those will go to #1. I would bet half of them will. I think all will or should be top 5 records and it will be a lot of fun to watch. The thing about ADDS this week is that there were so many add spots left on the table. So many stations wasted an ADD spot on an Old record that went for adds weeks ago. Some even wasted an add spot on records that don't go for adds for a few weeks.  Make no mistake these are wasted spots.  They help no one.  I don't blame every station as I think some do not understand how it works.  But it is pretty simple you ADD records that are going for ADDS. How do you find out what is going for adds? Every promotional company sends out an email every week.  If you want to cut out the promotional companies there is a section on the CMJ site that says GOING FOR ADDS    


I like ADDS. I think they are helpful in the life of promoting a record but they are only helpful if they are done correctly.  Let's go through the examples of what are not correct ADDs from this past week. 




1. PEACHES Rub 2. TELEPATHE Destroyer 3. SILICON Personal Computer 4. FIDLAR Too 5. BATTLES La Di Da Di
None of these records went for ADDS this week.  This was just a waste of time. 


This station 


1. WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE Harmlessness

2. BLEUBIRD Lauderdale

3. CHVRCHES Every Open Eye

4. RYAN ADAMS 1989

5. WAVVES V
Only messed up one of the records going for adds. But that could of been avoided had they just checked their email and saw that World is a Beautiful place.... ADDED last week.  That spot could of gone to MS John Soda to move from #20 most added to #19 most added. 


There are some stations that for some reason don't use all the ADD spots 


1. EMPRESARIOS The Vibes

2. CEU Live
Like the CMJ chart is a top 30 the top ADDS are a top 5 and If you chart 29 that chart is invalid I feel the same way about ADDS charts that don't have 5 adds. Those should be invalid as well. 


This ADDS chart 


1. WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE Harmlessness

2. DEAD WEATHER Dodge And Burn

3. SILVERSUN PICKUPS Better Nature

4. JR JR Jr Jr

5. SPENCER RADCLIFFE Looking In
Would of been perfect if it were entered last week. This week. Not so much. 


I know that some of the MD's out there just don't know and part of my job is to educate them. There are others that just don't care and ADD what they like regardless of the ADD week. I am not sure why, as it helps no one and I would rather they did not do ADDS at all.  There are of course 100's of you out there that understand and appreciate the game of ADDS and to those I say thank you. 


Look forward to seeing you next week! 


Talk to me on Twitter 


Look at photos on Instagram


and Add me on Snapchat: 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP WEEK 39 CMJ ISSUE 1412

What a week! I really thought early on we were going to plow past last weeks 247 stations, in the end we did have more stations but only 13. Creeping on up though so thats good to see.

Beach House is a beast. We are all competing for #2 at this point. Last week Beach House had just over 70% of the stations this week they were up to 72% of all stations. At one point early on there were only 4 stations, out of around 30, that did not have Beach House on their charts. So you guys like Beach House.

The volume of ADDS right now is pretty crazy and with the CMJ marathon taking a week of reporting away from us next week should be even crazier. This week there were 14 records that had 30+ adds. The top add, Dead Weather topped out at 83 adds.  I was surprised how tight all the adds were and that Dead Weather did not get above 100 ADDS but with so many to pick from it meant we had so many in the 30's and it brought down that top #. I would not be shocked to see the same thing happen again this next week as well as the week after CMJ.

The real question on the charts is who will knock off Beach House!? The current group of records in the top 10 are so far behind that it would take at least another 2 weeks of huge gains and also huge drops from Beach House to get up there. So lets start looking at this weeks ADDS.

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	Label
1	83	DEAD WEATHER	Dodge And Burn	Third Man
2	69	JULIA HOLTER	Have You In My Wilderness	Domino
3	54	WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE	Harmlessness	Epitaph
4	53	COKE WEED	Mary Weaver	Beyond Beyond Is Beyond
5	47	JR JR	Jr Jr	Warner Bros
6	45	WAND	1,000 Days	Drag City
7	43	DUNGEN	Allas Sak	Mexican Summer
8	42	KURT VILE	B'lieve I'm Goin Down...	Matador
9	42	SILVERSUN PICKUPS	Better Nature	New Machine
10	42	OBERHOFER	Chronovision	Glassnote
11	37	BLITZEN TRAPPER	All Across This Land	Vagrant
12	36	SMALL BLACK	Best Blues	Jagjaguwar
13	33	DARWIN DEEZ	Double Down	Lucky Number
14	30	MERCURY REV	The Light In You	Bella Union
15	27	SHEEPDOGS	Future Nostalgia	Dine Alone
16	26	FUTUREBIRDS	Hotel Parties	Easy Sound
17	23	EDITORS	In Dream	Pias
18	21	PALEHOUND	Dry Food	Exploding In Sound
19	18	JOHN GRANT	Grey Tickles, Black Pressure	Partisan
20	15	SPENCER RADCLIFFE	Looking In	Run For Cover

Who out of this group do you think will challenge for #1?   The record I think we should all look out for is Kurt Vile. I ask stations who they are excited about each week and the answer overwhelmingly was Kurt Vile this week. If we look at the charts he is already at #58.  Look out for this record.  

Early on, as I mentioned, it seemed like we were going to have a huge increase in the number of stations reporting. It only ended up being 13 stations though. However if we include the stations that were INVALID it would of been an increase of 23 stations.   With new MD' starting up it's easy to not know what you are doing. So lets look at some common mistakes with the Invalid charts. 

Look at just this stations top 10. 

Rank	Artist	Recording	Label	User Supplied Version
1	COLD WAR KIDS *	Miracle Me *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
2	CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH *	In This Home of Ice *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
3	WESTKUT *	0700 *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
4	DAMIEN RICE *	The Box *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
5	JACK + ELIZA *	Quarter Past the Hour *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
6	JACK AND ELIZA	Gentle Warnings	Yebo
7	CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH *	Details of War *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
8	WETKUST *	Dishwasher *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
9	DAMIEN RICE	My Favorite Faded Fantasy	Warner Brothers
10	COLD WAR KIDS *	Bottled Affection *	*	waiting for CMJ verification

The rest of the chart is pretty much the same. Damien Rice, Cold War Kids, Alt-J over and over again.  On the CMJ charts we have seen an increase in the number of singles reported however CMJ is an ALBUM based chart. So that means if there is just a single out then its ok to chart that single however if the full record is out you need only to report that album.  

This next station is the most common error we see and is very easy to fix

11	METHOD MAN	The Meth Lab	Tommy Boy
12	MEGA RAN	RNDM	RandomBeats
13	K-OS	Can't Fly Without Gravity	Dine Alone
14	MEGA RAN	RNDM	RandomBeats
15	PARIS	Pistol Politics	Guerilla Funk
16	PETE ROCK	Petestrumentals 2	Mello Music Group
17	MOKA ONLY	Magikal Weirdness	Urbnet

Reporting the same record twice. I have never used the CMJ system from a station perspective and from what I hear there are some exciting new changes coming but I don't understand why the system lets a station report 2 of the same record if its not allowed. Perhaps there is a warning given to the station, I don't know but there should be. 

Here is another station with that same issue: 

18	DAMAGED BUG	Cold Hot Plumbs	Castle Face
19	DE LUX	Generation	Innovative Leisure
20	LAPALUX	Lustmore	Brainfeeder
21	MIAMI HORROR	All Possible Futures	Dine Alone
22	LAPALUX	Lustmore	Brainfeeder
23	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	Blurryface	Fueled By Ramen-Atlantic

This next mistake is a little more rare and I am not even sure how it happens : 

8	MARY PAIR AND THE GROOVIES *	Electro cosmic *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
9	BRIKA	Voice Memos	Art House
Empty
11	PANDA BEAR MEETS THE GRIM REAPER *	Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
12	PIONEER OF NOTHING *	You Blew It *	*	waiting for CMJ verification
13	DODOS	Individ	Polyvinyl

But you do see this happen from time to time. 

So those are some examples of what not to do. I know whenever I see an Invalid chart I try and reach out to the station to let them know what is wrong and that they have time to fix it. I am sure others do the same.   

Thank you for reading! Lets talk on twitter. 

Also only 8 Reporting days until the Marathon and until you vote for Promoter of the Year and all the station awards. Follow along on my Instagram as I reveal who I am voting for in each category! 

COLLEGE RADIO RECAP CMJ ISSUE 1411 WEEK 38

Just when you think everything is going one direction it comes to a crashing halt.  Last week we saw the largest uptick in stations in sometime. You would think late September would mean a continued increase in stations.  Well I did at least, this week we lost 14 stations. It does not seem like  a lot but I would love to be seeing gains of 20+ a week.   I am not sure it really had much of an impact though.

Beach House continues to dominate. The big move of week comes from Foals going from #9 to #2. But the remaining gap of 42 stations from #2 to #1 is roughly equal to the same gap of #2 to any of the records in the 6-12 range.  So I would guess Beach House will lose some stations next week and Foals will gain some but a 42 station swing might be difficult.  When talking about Foals we need to also talk about the #2 add that week Fidlar. They made a nice move as well from #11 to #5. But they are only a few stations outside of that 42 station gap I mentioned above.  So they should be able to move up to #3 next week but records such as Yo La Tengo,  Arcs, Panda Bear, Low, Beirut, and Battles all are going to be very fluid within that top 10.  But I don't see any having enough juice to make a jump past #3.

One of the interesting things that happens every year around this time is with stations coming back from summer break is they go after the older records and help prop them up for longer periods of time.  Tame Impala in its 10th week on the chart is still holding strong at #6.  Courtney Barnett in her 27th week on the chart is still in the top 100 at #90.  Best Coast even went up this week in their 21st week. That usually lasts for a few weeks before those older records are pushed out by the new stuff. It is a bummer to have one of those records that gets caught in-between though.

One great/ hard thing about fall means that ADDS are a lot more competitive.   This week I thought we would see a few records get 100 + adds but in the end only Youth Lagoon was able to break the 100 ADD barrier.  This is largely because there were more records getting 10 plus adds.  I thought it would be interesting to compare how adds would look in different weeks.

For example 6 weeks ago the #1 most added record was Chelsea Wolfe with 83 adds. 83 adds would of gotten her 2nd three times and 3rd twice. Of course each week is different with different numbers of records going but thats kind of the luck of the ADDS from week to week.  She just happened to go the right week.  But who is to say that if she went in the week with Foals she would get the same. You can't but its still fun to look.

I decided to also take a look at how many adds there were overall each week in the top 20.
For example this week there were 704 total adds in the top 20. Last week there were 785 and on average over the past 6 weeks there are 723 adds in the top 20. The high was 785 total adds and the low was 664 total adds. To look at those numbers more accurately you need to also know how many reporters there were in each week.  I am still trying to see if these numbers mean anything. Currently I cannot tell but it's interesting to note that percentage wise there seems to be about the same number of ADDS making up the top 20 week to week.


Lastly I have not done this for a while but lets look at how ADDS from 6 weeks ago faired on the charts compared each other.

TW	TA	Artist	Recording	PEAK
1	83	CHELSEA WOLFE	Abyss	#7
2	63	TEEN DAZE	Morning World	#16
3	62	DERADOORIAN	The Expanding Flower Planet	#15
4	59	NATHANIEL RATELIFF AND THE NIGHT SWEATS	Nathaniel Rateliff And The Night Sweats	#16
5	45	BOHICAS	The Making Of	#36
6	38	POTTY MOUTH	Potty Mouth EP	#22
7	35	BRIANA MARELA	All Around Us	#43
8	35	WILD ONES	Heatwave	#31
9	32	GOSPEL MACHINE	Your Holy Ghost	#47
10	30	COLD BEAT	Into The Air	#39
11	29	MICHAEL STASIS	RIP III	#73
12	26	REATARDS	Grown Up Fucked Up (Reissue)	FELL OFF
13	19	A LOVE LIKE PI	III	#48
14	19	EL TEN ELEVEN	Fast Forward	#45
15	18	KICKBACK	Sorry All Over The Place	#74
16	17	DRINKS	Hermits On Holiday	#88
17	16	MONKS OF MELLONWAH	Disconnect	NO #
18	14	LAND LINES	The Natural World	#64
19	12	PAUL SMITH AND THE INTIMATIONS	Contradictions	#123
20	12	SWEET BABOO	Boombox Ballads	FELL OFF

All of the records were charting still this week except for Sweet Baboo, Monks of Mellonwah and Reatards. 

Reatards peaked at #76 and charted for 3 weeks 

Sweet Baboo peaked at #163 and charted for 2 weeks
and as far as i can tell Monks of Mellonwah never charted.

When you look at those #'s what do you see? I see that the #1 ADD had the highest peak and in this case was a clear indicator of how the record was going to do. The biggest overachiever is Potty Mouth as they preformed like a top 5 record. But for the most part the top 5 records performed one way and the top 10 were slightly below and so forth.  So in the battle of Do ADDS matter looks like for this week they did.

Lastly we are a few short weeks away from the CMJ MARATHON!
I will be on an awesome panel with some fine people a CMJ AMA.
ALSO PIRATE! will be having a great CMJ PARTY!!!!
What will you be singing?

Lets talk about everything on Twitter. 

CMJ ISSUE 1410 Week 37 COLLEGE RADIO RECAP

Hey there! Welcome back. We have our biggest reporting week since week 16!

I thought we would see a pretty good battle, no pun intended, for adds this week but in the end Battles lead most of the way and had a pretty convincing win.

1	93	BATTLES	La Di Da Di	Warp
2	70	SHANNON AND THE CLAMS	Gone By Dawn	Hardly Art
3	60	TELEKINESIS	Ad Infinitum	Merge

Beach House finally took over #1 from Mac Demarco. When I look at all the records behind Beach House its hard to really know who is going to step up and make a run at #1 next. 

1	2	4	1	4	BEACH HOUSE	Depression Cherry	Sub Pop
2	1	1	1	7	MAC DEMARCO	Another One	Captured Tracks
3	6	8	3	5	DESTROYER	Poison Season	Merge
4	4	3	1	9	TAME IMPALA	Currents	Interscope
5	3	2	2	7	LA LUZ	Weirdo Shrine	Hardly Art
6	5	5	4	8	WILCO	Star Wars	dBpm
7	7	7	7	5	CHELSEA WOLFE	Abyss	Sargent House
8	13	94	8	3	YO LA TENGO	Stuff Like That There	Matador
9	37	-	9	2	FOALS	What Went Down	Warner
10	9	15	9	3	BEN FOLDS	So There	New West
11	145	-	11	2	FIDLAR	Too	Mom And Pop
12	18	-	12	2	PANDA BEAR	Crosswords	Domino
13	121	-	13	2	ARCS	Yours, Dreamily	Nonesuch

Take this list  and now lets take out every record that has no chance at #1 going forward

1	2	4	1	4	BEACH HOUSE	Depression Cherry	Sub Pop
3	6	8	3	5	DESTROYER	Poison Season	Merge
8	13	94	8	3	YO LA TENGO	Stuff Like That There	Matador
9	37	-	9	2	FOALS	What Went Down	Warner
11	145	-	11	2	FIDLAR	Too	Mom And Pop
12	18	-	12	2	PANDA BEAR	Crosswords	Domino
13	121	-	13	2	ARCS	Yours, Dreamily	Nonesuch

Yo La Tengo is a stretch as well but the last one took #1 with no indie and a slow build so who knows if they can do it again.  Destroyer  made a nice move last week but the gap between 3 and 1 is so significant that I have my doubts that they can make that jump before Foals does or even before Battles or Shannon and the Clams does.  We might be in for a 2-3 week run with Beach House. 

The CMJ Marathon is coming up soon! I am sure you have checked out the initial lineup https://www.cmj.com/marathon/

We also have the nominations up for the CMJ Awards

Congrats to all those that were nominated. 

The person I nominated in 5 of the categories got nominated so I feel pretty good about my picks! 

Lets talk about this on the twitter!