pardon my ignoranceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦..what is the significance of a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“bulletà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ?

A “bullet” shows that the song is increasing in spins. Songs without bullets have a decrease in spins. I started including the bullets because rankings from week to week don’t give the entire picture. A song may have an increase in spins, but may fall down the chart (because they get passed by another song rising faster) or it may be loosing spins while “falling up” the chart (because other songs are falling faster). It gives a better idea of the momentum of the songs.

Mediabase uses a little arrow to indicate that a song is increasing in spins, so now, I do the same (if a song has a Mediabase arrow, it gets a ^)

A “spin” is everytime an song is played on the radio. Arbitron (and other surveying companies) have determined what the average listening audience is for each station during each time period. So, if the spin occurs during the “drive home” on a popular station in a big city it is considered to have been heard by more listeners (Audience Impressions or AI) than if it’s played at 2 am on an unloved station in a small market. So, “spins” and “AI” are what drive the airplay charts. Pop rankings are based strictly on “spins”. Country rankings are based on “AI”.

“Bullets” got their start on Billboard. Billboard has for years put a bullet symbol beside songs that are rising at a quickly. Here is what Fred from BB Chart Beat said on the subject:

“When bullets are awarded, we grade on the curve. That means the percentage of gain needed to win a bullet changes from week to week, to reflect market activity. In a week where most albums experience a gain, such as a week before Christmas when consumers purchase more product than usual, you would need a larger gain than usual to be awarded a bullet.”

BB Chart Beat