Pioneering Digital Music Charts in Billboard Magazine

Awarding the Silicon CD to Britney Spears for most played artist on the net. I created the award for my client Gracenote.

Eric Schwartzman

I help #startups, change-ups & scale-ups pivot to #digitalmarketing Podcasts: http://ericschwartzman.com/prtw & http://ericschwartzman.com/b2blg SaaS founder & author

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This is a really cool interview with music industry consultant, observer and journalist Geoff Mayfield talking about his role charting digital music plays when he was editor at Billboard, the legislative shortcomings of the DMCA and escalating ring-tone sales.

I represented Gracenote (formerly CDDB) and worked with Billboard to launch the first ever co branded digital music chart and created a Silicon CD recognizing most played artists online.

Geoff Mayfield was director of charts at Billboard magazine. In addition to overseeing Billboard's charts department, Mayfield wrote the charts analysis column Over The Counter and spearheaded the launch of Billboard Chart Alert.

SHOW NOTES:

04:02 – Geoff Mayfield reveals the inner working of just what goes into the production of the coveted Billboard charts.

05:48 – A Billboard veteran, Mayfield weighs in on the advantages and disadvantages that technology has brought to the Billboard charts.

08:51 – Mayfield on the importance of looking beyond the Billboard 200 to a more holistic view of all Billboard charts in an age of media fragmentation.

10:00 – Mayfield talks about new media consumption and the psychographics of digital consumption.

13:04 – Mayfield reveals the shortcomings of retail sales measurements and the dangers of an oversimplified perspective.

16:33 – Mayfield describes the secret behind how Billboard measures non-copyrighted music.

17:42 – The Digital Millennium Copyright Act and what the future holds for record companies pushing sales of physical product in an age where consumers are legally constrained by how they can consume.

19:51 – Mayfield talks about the impact of digital distribution on major and independent record companies.

22:13 – Mayfield plugs Billboard's new chart called Hot RingMasters, which measures ring-tones based on master recordings.

25:06 – Mayfield acknowledges the shortcomings of the Billboard charts and the changes the company is making to aggregate more comprehensive.

27:50 – End.