Tell me this then.......

Why have THREE hours of the Top 40 on a Sunday, if even the number one is an alien song to the average listener??

YES, THREE HOURS!!


I know why, but please enlighten everyone else..........can feel a massive swerve coming, as everytime I bring this up, the "yes men" go missing!

It probably brings in a big chunk of revenue.

You need a better understanding of how music research and testing works. Just because you aren't hearing the artists you mentioned doesn't mean they aren't being tested. Thousands of off-format songs are continually researched to see what works and doesn't. In fact some of the artists and songs would you make you think "why would they test that?".

And I'm part of that research and get e-mails from Your Heart to complete Soundboard surveys where they play 10 seconds each of 100 tracks and they have to score it as good or bad.

This has been discussed before although in general.

As Station ID touches upon each station that carries Big Top 40 gets a share of the revenue from the show.

I presume they've weighed up how much they make from carrying the show instead of doing their own thing.

I belong to your heart but just get bog standard surveys. Would love to be on the soundboard ?

So, the "We cant play anything they don't know" rule goes out of the window then because of money??

Yeah right!

So if I was a billionaire businessman, and I offered 3 or 4 times more than the revenue they get from that show for a three hour programme featuring non stop obscure techno tracks, would they do it???

You should make the offer - I'm sure a man of your means can find some backers.

[quote=Borsant;77675804]
Funny that. If the record has enough sales to be No 1 for three weeks running then it would seem to be, rather obviously "testing well" with the public, or why else are they buying it?

It rather enforces the arrogance of Global (Heart) and its programmers. It's passed a public test but not one specifically conducted by themselves.

[quote=Mall;77679644]
I'd love to know who they test on who is the average "tester" ? Surely if they are regular listeners i.e. listen for a lengthy period then when they are played I've had the time of my life, nothings gonna stop us now or show me love they would say no I'm bored of that! But I doubt it works like that there probably just asked do you like this track yes or no or are you familiar with this track yes or no. So there is no option for should these tracks be rested or have you heard these too much lately etc ?

Even the most devoted heart listener must be aware of the repetition and it's inability to update and refresh the music regularly ?

I have wondered about this myself.

As we know,in music testing they play only a few seconds of each track to the listening panel. Now any panel of Heart listeners (or potential listeners) is going to recognise Sweet Dreams Are Made of This or Don't You Want Me - they could hardly fail to,they are played so often. And they are good songs. So most people would give them a "like". But if they played other 80s stuff like Howard Jones New Song,or Pearl In The Shell,probably not so many would recognise it. So it would get less likes.

So then they look at the results and go "Well the audience want Sweet Dreams are Made of This but they don't like Howard Jones."

So Sweet Dreams continues to get played and Howard Jones continues to be ignored and the audience never hear any of his records. Isn't music testing a bit circular? They play the songs they know the audience like - but they are the only ones the audience ever hears on the station.

Presumably Little Mix are currently residing in Heart's "Don't test well" file,because I don't think I've ever heard one of their records on Heart. Which is a pity,they've got some good tunes. They get played on Forth One sometimes.

And some girls aloud please

Well,that goes without saying. There should be much more Girls Aloud played. Even The Saturdays hardly get played. Atomic Kitten never.

[quote=Mall;77679644][quote=Borsant;77675804]

Funny that. If the record has enough sales to be No 1 for three weeks running then it would seem to be, rather obviously "testing well" with the public, or why else are they buying it?

So you would programme a station trying to attract millions of people by blinding playing them a song only 20-30,000 have bought...

To clarify... Getting to #1 is probably enough to get a song tested. It'll score very low on familiarity, a big consideration, but might still make it if the other scores are sky high.

[quote=Borsant;77683476][quote=Mall;77679644]
20-30,000 erm and the rest singles/downloads sell more now than they have for years often above 100,000 per week for a number one.

The song was also streamed 1.74 million times!(source the official charts company)

How many sales a week and what's the age gender demographic breakdown?

First week it sold
97'000 second 80'000 unsure third week
1.6 to 1.8 million streams a week !!!

Are we talking about "Hold my hand"?

Played on the Top 40 show on Heart?

Nice swerve, but you're not getting out of this corner I've backed you into!

So you don't know wether the track is being bought by Heart types. Nice swerve! 😄

How would I know that information ???

Exactly...the penny drops! Do you understand the importance of testing now?

I'd surprised if it hasnt
been brought by a few 25 to 44 yr old females.
It's being played by radio2 which is for over 35s so there obviously liking it. It's also being played by Capital under 35s (just two examples) so a song with a very wide appeal.
In fact heart are probably the only station not playing it 😄

I never said it wasn't important