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 1ST
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Billboard.com
Billboard has been the oracle when it comes to music charts in
the U.S. for some time, and their Web
site is no exception.
The charts themselves are compiled from a national sample of retail store sales reports
and radio plays from around the country. Whereas the charts themselves are not that large the database behind them is
quite substantial. Of course we only
want to see the tip of that iceburg, and that is exactly what you get from the billboard charts, a snapshot of
the most popular music and what is selling best today.
Billboard charts are published weekly and the
Billboard Web site provides the most up-to-date method of getting the latest
version.
Their
most popular charts are the Billboard 200 (albums) and the Billboard Hot 100 (singles),
but in addition to these they also publish a number of dedicated charts for a variety of musical styles like
R&B Hip-Hop, Country and Electronic.
As well as chart positions they also show
details of gold, platinum and diamond sales for artists who have reached RIAA certification for sales of 500,000, 1,000,000 and 10 million units.
Billboard also offer an online streaming audio countdown show, featuring the top movers from the current weeks charts, from their
BillboardRadio site.
TOP CHOICE
MTV.com
Charts
The leaders in music video have brought their expertise to the Web with streaming music video clips
online, and linked it all to the
current music charts.
As well as providing the Billboard top
music charts, MTV also publish their own
show's charts including the MTV Playlist, MTV2 Playlist and MTV Top 20 Videos.
Likewise the MTV.com Web site also has it's own charts of the Top 20 Downloads and Top 20 Video Streams as measured from the Web site.
This
video streaming service is becoming
increasingly popular as more people
get broadband access to the Internet,
and when coupled with the latest
charts is bound to continue to
increase in popularity.
TOP CHOICE
NME
UK Charts
Leading UK
publication New Musical Express have
published music charts since 1952 when
they rang around a few music shops and
came up with a top 12.
That rudimentary
top 12 evolved quickly and became the
official UK top 100 for both singles
and albums. NME still publish it
today, with results now derived from a
large database of UK record store
sales.
The official top
100 UK singles and albums charts are
both published weekly on their Web
site.
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Artists