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Mediabase is a division of Premiere Radio Networks, located in Sherman Oaks, California. Mediabase is a music industry website containing in-depth charts and analysis based on the monitoring of 1,836 radio stations in the US and Canada, in 175 radio markets. Mediabase features realtime charts in 25 radio formats, based on radio airplay. In addition, its services has dozens of analytical tools. Mediabase also owns and operates ratethemusic.com, a service that allows consumers to rate music for the radio and record industries.
Radio stations subscribe to Mediabase's monitoring service, via network affiliations. The Mediabase network consists of more than 1,800 radio affiliates. In addition, record company and entertainment executives subscribe on a cash basis.
Mediabase charts are used as the source on the following radio countdown shows:
- American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest (CHR and Hot AC, distributed by Premiere)
- The Jeff Foxworthy Countdown (country, distributed by Premiere)
- Crook & Chase Country Countdown (country, distributed by United Stations)
- Live In The Den with Big Tigger
- Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40 (country, distributed by Dial Global)
- CMT Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton (country, distributed by Westwood One)
In addition, Mediabase is the primary programming tool for nationally syndicated shows like Open House Party, After Midnite with Blair Garner, and Delilah.
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History
Mediabase was founded in 1985 by Nancy and Rich Deitemeyer (aka, Rich Meyer). Originally known as Mediascan, the company changed its name to Mediabase in 1987. Mediabase became the industry's first mass-airplay monitoring company in late 1987.
In January 1988, Mediabase began publishing a trade magazine known as Monday Morning Replay, featuring monitored airplay in the top 35 markets. In 1992, Mediabase switched to a data disk method of delivery, so that it could supply deeper data to its customers. In 1997, Mediabase moved its product to the Internet, and introduced Mediabase 24/7. Over the years, Mediabase has supplied its data to numerous trade publications, such as Radio & Records, Network Magazine Group, Gavin, Hits, and appears every Tuesday in USA Today.
The following formats are monitored by Mediabase:
US Radio
- Mainstream AC
- Hot AC
- Rhythmic AC
- Adult Hits
- CHR/Pop
- CHR/Rhythmic
- Dance (Featured in FMQB only; Stations that are part of this panel also report to CHR/Rhythmic)
- Urban
- Urban AC
- Country
- Alternative
- Active Rock
- Mainstream Rock
- Classic Rock
- AAA
- Smooth Jazz
- Christian AC
- Gospel
- Regional Mexican
- Spanish Contemporary
- Tropical Latin
Glossary
How to Read
2 2 Beyoncé Halo 8660 8440 220 49.866
Let's say the chart looks like the above. This is how you would read the numbers. Last week position-This week position-Artist-Title-Spins from this week-Spins from last week-Difference of spins-Audience impression
More In Depth
2 2 Beyoncé Halo 8660 8440 220 49.866
The first two says that this time last week, the song was the second most played song on pop radio. The second two says that today, the song is the second most played song on pop radio. Beyoncé is the artist. Halo is the track title. 8660 is the number of spins the song has received in the past seven days. 8440 is the number of spins this same time last week. 220 is the difference between the two spin numbers. 49.866 is the estimated number of listeners in the past seven days in millions. 49.866 means 49,866,000 listeners.
Spins
Spins refer to the number of times that a song is played on the radio. If you are currently hearing a song in the radio, that is a Spin that would count for the stats of your radio. Usually, here we talk of the accumulated number of spins for the last seven days, so it's a weekly accumulated number.
Bullet
When the "difference of spins" (see above) is positive, then we have a Bullet. In other words, the bullet is the number of new spins that a song gained over the past 7 days (in our example: 543 is the bullet). There is a common mistake to call bullet as difference of spins, but that is not accurate. A song with a difference of -100 is simply "unbulleted".
Audience Impression (AI)
An audience impression is a measure of how large an audience a song reaches, and is usually expressed in millions of people. For example, one play by a New York radio station might be rated as a certain number of million impressions, meaning that this is a reasonable if necessarily inexact estimate of the number of people who heard it.
Recurrents/Purges
A recurrent is a song that has been taken off the chart since it is too old to be charting, but it is still receiving spins. A song goes recurrent after being in the top 40 of the chart for over 20 weeks and is below position number 20.
A purge is when a song has reached the top 40, but has now dipped below the top 40 and doesn't show any sign of ever returning. The song is then taken off the chart to make way for other songs that will probably be more successful to make their way onto the chart.
Adds
When a song goes for adds, basically it means it being "officially" released for stations to add the song. The promo CD is usually sent out a little before or around the adds date as well. Also, just because a station spins a song doesn't mean it's been added, it has to be added to their playlist and spun regularly throughout the week, not just one or two spins here and there. Adds dates don't really affect major artists since their music is bound to take off anyways, but an adds date possibly gives it a little boost, reminding programmers that a song is going for adds that week.
External links
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