# How do they decide the top 30 songs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 15, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942 "2002-11-15T22:35:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gjorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@Gjorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gjorp)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942/1 "2002-11-15T22:35:57Z")

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There are many radio stations out there that play the top 30 (or 40, or 66, or etc.) of the best selling songs. My problem with that is, when a CD is released, there’s at least 10 songs on it. So how can they decide the song to play?

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942/2 "2002-11-15T23:04:11Z")

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They play the song the recording company designates as the “single”. Then, based on requests, sales of singles (if they’re released) and CD sales, they figure out which are the most popular of the week, and play them in their top XX count downs.

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**Author:** ![Gjorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@Gjorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gjorp)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942/3 "2002-11-16T04:51:11Z")

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thanx

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**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2002, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-decide-the-top-30-songs/136942/4 "2002-11-16T10:41:03Z")

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That’s the way it’s supposed to work, but in many circumstances the top 30 are made up of record companies pics sent to the radio stations they control.

the website i write for did an article about it here: [http://fyd.fuxored.net/fmc.html](http://fyd.fuxored.net/fmc.html) also on the link is a link to the group who’s trying to do somethign about the state of radio today.