On last week’s Top 200 chart, you may have noticed a new category emerge called “Advance Tracks.” This applied to five artists that made the Top 200: Mac Demarco, Jay Som, Spoon, The Shins and Temples. I’d like to take a second to explain what the heck that means.
Essentially, the decision has been made, in consultation with and at the request the record industry, that during the period where more than one “single” is available, but before the album is released, all singles will be combined to a new category of “Advanced Tracks.” Once an album is released, the “advance tracks” moniker is retired and the chartable recording replaced by the album.
Here’s why:
First and foremost, the NACC 200 is an Album based chart. We allow and encourage singles to appear from time-to-time as the demand for them prior to the album being released is high, and therefore a notable measure of the anticipation of the arrival of the album. As the music industry is shifting to a model which sees them releasing several “singles” prior to the release of the album we’re adapting the chart to best reflect the state of affairs at college and non-comm radio.
When more than one single is available and is added individually a few things happen:
- Some stations list single “A”
- Other stations list single “B”
- Even “otherer” stations create and add a category akin to “Advanced Tracks” and report both
What happens then is that this data throws off the chart in one of two ways:
- None of the tracks garner enough “points” to appear on the chart at all
- Some or all of the tracks garner enough points to appear, resulting in multiple entries which then bumps 2 or three albums off the top 200.
The record industry, a major consumer of our data, who in turn provide free music back to our reporting stations felt that this was an incorrect representation of the overall picture, especially if it happened multiple times (as it did last week, 5 times) therefore denying those singles or other titles to not appear at all.
The solution that everyone agreed upon was “Advanced Tracks” and so far the vast majority of stations are warm to the idea. I hope that by providing you this insight, you too will be warm to the idea and understand why it’s being tabulated this way.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to support@naccchart.com
-Gary