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[icanrule]

I've often wonder how often any given year of music gets played on the radio.  Does anyone know the actually percentages that occur?  As an example here is a chart which is not real at all but it gives you an idea of what I am looking for.

Last 6 months: 15%
Last year - 6 months - 10%
Last year - 2 years - 10%
Last 2 year - 4 years - 10%
ect... ect...

Basically the idea would be that the older the songs the less likely they are to be played.  The reason I am interested in this is because I'm wondering if it is possible to make a radio system based on year.  I wan to be able to say I want to listen to the radio from 1995.  I would just plug in 1995 and it would give me the radio based on the radio metrics above.  Does anyone know where I could find these stats if they even exist anywhere? 

[datdude]

?

Not even sure where to start here.

Are you referring to a specific radio station?  Each radio station is different....

[benn600]

I would guess, for our local HITS station, 50% from last 6 months
30% from 6 - 12 months
20% older than 1 year

[icanrule]

I know it's a very tough question but I am sure that there is an algorithm.  I want to see if I can simulate a radio station of a certain time.  I'm sure there must be an algorithm.  We can start by assuming that it is a top of the charts radio station. 

[benn600]

The algorithm is who's paying the bills.  They do listen to callers too so it depends what people want.

I like my music library and abhor radio because I prefer being able to mix new songs with the old ones on my terms.  I also like being able to totally randomly pull up some Christmas song I like no matter the month!  That's what you call POWER.  All brought to you in part by Media Center!

[Doof]

I like my music library and abhor radio because I prefer being able to mix new songs with the old ones on my terms.  I also like being able to totally randomly pull up some Christmas song I like no matter the month!  That's what you call POWER.  All brought to you in part by Media Center!

That's great and all, but icanrule's looking to leverage that same POWER to utilize his/her music library in a rather unique and interesting manner. So why discourage it?



But I do have to agree with what else has been said. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule that all radio stations use when determining what to play. I think the best you'll be able to do is just try to come up with a ratio that makes sense to you. You can tweak it as you go until it sounds "right". Definitely let us know what you come up with, though. I'm really intrigued by this.

[benn600]

Different stations I know of also have significantly different percentages.  The classic stations obviously play 70% from over a year ago--over ten years ago.  Another station, which I generally consider my favorite, plays a lot of older stuff but throws in new music.  A third station focuses on new music and sprinkles some older in--like the percentages I listed above.

[rick.ca]

Interesting idea. A more direct approach would be to get chart data (e.g., Billboard, Rolling Stone), use that to build some playlists (e.g., one for each year), and then use a smartlist to test against against those lists. If weekly charts were used, it could be done so the probability of an item being selected would be proportional to the number of weeks on the chart. Of course, this wouldn't work very well unless you actually have a lot of the music on the chart. And, maybe you would want to superimpose your idea on this, since items stay on the charts for weeks, not years.

[benn600]

That's interesting.  I think my collection includes a lot of chart topping music just by chance.