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Comment by mwexler | Hacker News Reader

I enjoyed this,but was surprised to see how the older stuff (1970s) skyrocketed to the top, then PLUMMETED off after a week. Compare to 2000s where a song can stay at top for a month, and may drift down.

As others point out, changes in how tracked (radio play vs. download sales vs. streams) can change this, but it is fascinating to see visually.

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It still happens today, but perhaps more rarely. For physical copies I'd bet a large part of the problem is simply availability, and by the 2000s most labels had gotten better at a solid distribution flow. If you sell out 10k albums in your first week, but have no more ready to go next week, you're going to drop pretty hard.

> I enjoyed this,but was surprised to see how the older stuff (1970s) skyrocketed to the top, then PLUMMETED off after a week. Compare to 2000s where a song can stay at top for a month, and may drift down.

Yes, this is fascinating to see, and I believe there is some high correlation between the speed of changes and the quality of the produced music.

I wonder if different folks are listening (or reporting anyway). How did popularity used to get tracked? Callin requests to radio stations? Is that still how its done?

> Is that still how its done?

Good lord, that would be shocking. I know very few under-20s who listen to the radio for music, and I've never even met someone who had ever called into a radio station to request a song.

Most likely it's a mix of itunes downloads, youtube clicks, spotify plays, etc.

It was five-ish years ago, but we had a period where we listened to the radio a lot at my previous employer. Company Wi-Fi didn't allow for streaming music, and I didn't have a smartphone at the time. Occasionally someone else did or I'd bring in my iPod and play stuff, but it's a lot easier just to tune in and let someone else be the DJ for you. It also takes off the pressure of picking music that's appropriate/likeable for everyone - if a song that no one likes comes on, we all could roll our eyes and sit through it or we could just change the station.

Now that I work from home my radio usage is mostly limited to sports, though I take a lot of road trips for family purposes and it becomes fun to scan through the radio and seek out songs you know.

And I have called in to a station before - probably not for ten years, but I've done it! It's interesting to see how they cut up the conversation to fit the space they have.

I've called into radio stations to request songs. But I was a teenager, and this was somewhere around 1990.

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