How
the Fan-Voted Chart Works
One goal of this chart is to be simple and clear in how it is made. There is a lot of information here; the basics are as follows:
I take care of the math that is needed each to week to calculate the order of the songs on the chart using a spreadsheet.
How Do I Vote?
There
is a survey that I share each week that you just have to vote for 20 songs on the only poll on the survey. Due to
the website I use to create the surveys, I cannot customize a link to
have it be the same every week. I share the link each week using my Twitter account (@FanVotedChart), on my Facebook page (The Fan-Voted Chart) and on my Wordpress
blog. The easiest way to find the link each week is to follow me
in any of the three places and check for the new link to be posted
after the voting opens on Tuesdays at 6am Eastern US time.
The following is for anyone interested in knowing all the
details of how the charts work.
Fan Driven:
Your votes help determine how the chart looks from
week-to-week. This chart is completely fan voted (hence its name)!
The Voting:
We vote
Tuesdays at 6am Eastern US through Thursdays at 6am Eastern US.
How the Chart Is Sorted:
The
chart is sorted each week first by how many points it has earned (see
below), then by the number of weeks it has been on the chart, and then
by song title in alphabetical order.
How Songs Earn Points:
The
points a song earns each week is equal to the number of votes it
received during that week's voting multiplied by the number of weeks
the song has been on the chart. For example, if a song gets 100
votes during the voting and has been on the chart for 10 weeks, it
earns 1000 Points that week; those points are added to the total it has
earned previously (a.k.a. "lifetime" points).
How
Songs Get Added to The Fan-Voted Charts:
I
search a variety of websites to
find songs to fit into each of 7 categories--Americana, Australian, Bluegrass, Canadian,
Indie, Texas Regional and United
States. I also take requests from artists, publicists, fans, etc.
I also have a Tribute Series that adds songs for three different reasons, bringing my total to 10 categories. First is the Artist Tribute, where I typically add a song from a Country Music Hall-of-Famer who passed away either recently or in the past. I also will add songs for an artist who recently passed away if they had some kind of impact on Country Music during my lifetime but never made it to the Hall-of-Fame.
The next Tribute is the "90s #1" Tribute, where I add songs that went #1 in the 1990s on either the Radio & Records and Billboard charts on roughly the 30th anniversary of going #1.
My final Tribute, is the "80s #1" Tribute, which is the same as the 90s #1, but for songs from the 1980s on approximately their 40th anniversary of going #1.
The Artist Tribute series will be a
permanent feature on the chart, but the other two will end when I add
the final #1 songs from the 80s and 90s at the end of 2029.
How
Songs Get Retired:
There
are certain conditions songs have to avoid to remain in the voting and
on the chart each week. The conditions depend
on how long a song has been on the chart and where it ranks in the
voting (the longer it has been on the chart, the higher place it has to
finish); songs stay on the chart a maximum of 30 weeks. You can visit the Current Retirement Rules page on my blog for an entire explanation.
Yearly
Chart
There is a Yearly Chart where
the Top 100 songs each year are announced and located here
on the chart website. The chart is determined by the total amount
of points a song has accumulated during its chart run with the #1 song
being the song who had the highest total throughout the year.
Questions on any part of the chart?
Feel free to send me an e-mail:
fanvotedchart@gmail.com. If you think there is a better way to explain
part of it, please share that as well. I may be the one that runs the
chart, but I sometimes get too wordy in my explanation and someone might see a
simpler way to explain. Don't be afraid to help me help everyone
understand. Thanks!