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All About The Music Charts

Everyone is familiar with the Billboard charts. Billboard is the industry standard for tracking record sales and airplay. But, besides Billboard, there are several other highly respected charts. Many of these of used by the record industry to track the success of up and coming artists. R&R (Radio & Records) is an extremely important chart to the record industry and "Hits" is another very important chart. CMJ is the "Billboard" of college charts. Broadjam & Garageband are peer review charts which are also an important indicator of the potential marketability of a song. The "Peer Review" charts are not based on radio airplay, but are instead based on song reviews by professional music industry people. This includes artists, producers, manager, A&R reps, song writers, publishers, etc. Garageband has over 200,000 songs competing for a chart position. 

Most charting organizations have their charts broken down in this manner:

1. An overall chart that combines all genres. The Billboard Hot 100 is an example.
2. Primary categories charts. These usually include rock, pop, country, dance, R&B, etc. Compared to sub-categories, these charts are very difficult to attain. 
3. Sub-categories. Under each primary categories may be several sub-categories. 

Music Charts (in order of significance)

Commercial Radio Charts

1. Billboard
2. Radio and Records (R&R)
3. Hit Makers (Hits)
4. Album Network (AN)
5. Friday Morning Quarterback (FMQB)
6. New Music Weekly (NMW)

College Radio Charts

1. CMJ (College Music Journal)
2. College Air

Peer Review Charts (Indie)

1. Broadjam
2. Garageband
3. Artist Without a Label

Radio Breakdown

1. Broadcast Radio (AM-FM)

2. Satellite Radio

3. Internet Radio

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