Broadcast Data Systems

Last updated
Broadcast Data Systems
IndustryInternet Music Data Analysis
Founded1982;42 years ago (1982)
Founder
Defunct2022 (2022)
Headquarters
Kansas City, Missouri
,
United States
Area served
Products
Owner Luminate
Parent MRC
Website www.bdsradio.com

Broadcast Data Systems (also known as Nielsen BDS, BDS or Luminate BDS) was a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned magazine Billboard , including the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100, when combined with sales and streaming data from Soundscan.

BDS monitors airplay on more than 2,000 radio stations, satellite radio, and cable music channels across the United States (including Puerto Rico), Canada, and Mexico. [1] Luminate distributes BDS airplay data in their suite of music data products, including Music Connect, BDSRadio, BDS RealTime, ENcore and Musictracking. [1]

From August 2006 to its final June 2009 publication, BDS also provided chart data for R&R after Nielsen acquired the trade. On September 10, 2009, the website Radio-Info.com struck a partnership with Nielsen BDS to provide radio airplay charts and related data for over 20 formats. [2]

History

BDS was founded as Broadcast Recognition Systems by Robert Uhlmann and Hal Oppenheimer, [3] in 1982. [4] Uhlmann developed the idea for automating airplay recognition after his experience working in the music industry in Florida. After returning to Kansas City, Uhlmann partnered with financier Hal Oppenheimer to start the company and develop the technology for tracking airplay data, which was originally developed to detect submarines by military contractors in Washington D.C. [3]

In 1986, BDS debuted their revolutionary audio recognition technology in front of the Recording Industry Association of America as a new method of monitoring radio airplay of songs and commercial advertising. Prior to the debut of their tracking system the music industry relied on self-reported playlists from radio stations. [5]

BDS airplay data was first used on a Billboard chart on January 20, 1990, when Billboard magazine published their newly revised Hot Country Singles chart. [6] On November 30, 1991, Billboard published the first Billboard Hot 100 chart using airplay data from BDS. [7] Since its debut, BDS has become the standard for the radio and music industry because of its accuracy of detecting, tracking and monitoring songs, [8] thus eliminating the use of reporting and call-outs to trades and record labels when it comes to adding and testing tracks. The method has also helped tracks that only received airplay (songs that are not released as singles) become major hits, especially in Billboard's Hot 100 chart, where several radio-only tracks have reached the top spot.

In 1994, SESAC became the first Performance Rights Organization to use data from BDS. [9]

BDS was acquired by Billboard parent company BPI Communications. [10] In 1994, BPI Communications along with BDS were sold to Dutch media conglomerate Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU). [11] After VNU was reorganized and renamed the Nielsen Company in 2007, BDS became known as Nielsen BDS.

In December 2019, Valence Media, the parent company of Billboard, acquired Nielsen's music data business to establish its data division, MRC Data. The acquisition reunited BDS with Billboard for the first time since its spin-off to E5 Global Media from Nielsen Business Media. The purchase included Soundscan, BDS, and Music360. [12] In October 2020, MRC and Penske Media combined their data businesses to form a joint venture, named P-MRC Data. The joint venture would combine MRC Data, Alpha Data, and Variety Business Intelligence. [13] P-MRC Data rebranded as Luminate in March 2022. [14]

The service was retired in September 2022. As a replacement, Luminate partnered with Mediabase for tracking radio airplay data. [15]

Related Research Articles

The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S.

Luminate Data, LLC is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data and Variety Business Intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediabase</span> Radio station monitoring service

Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals. Mediabase charts and airplay data are used on many popular radio countdown shows and televised music awards programs. Music charts are published in both domestic and international trade publications and newspapers worldwide. Mediabase is a division of iHeartMedia.

A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include record sales, the amount of radio airplay, the number of downloads, and the amount of streaming activity.

The Radio Songs chart is released weekly by Billboard magazine and measures the airplay of songs being played on radio stations throughout the United States across all musical genres. It is one of the three components, along with sales and streaming activity, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airplay</span> Frequency that a song is broadcast on radio stations

Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in nightclubs and at discotheques between the 1940s and 1960s would also have airplay.

Radio & Records (R&R) was a trade publication providing news and airplay information for the radio and music industries. It started as an independent trade from 1973 to 2006 until VNU Media took over in 2006 and became a relaunched sister trade to Billboard, until its final issue in 2009.

Billboard Radio Monitor was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a spinoff of Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry as well as music chart enthusiasts. It was developed in Columbia, Maryland, initially by Alan Smith and Jonas Cash, principals of the music company called AIR. AIR created music listening competitions for radio programmers in five different musical genres and were looking for a "qualifier" for the contests. The contests involved testing new songs' potential by having radio programmers listen to and respond to each song's hit potential using a national chart as the qualifier. After using Radio and Records chart for the first 10 years of the competition, AIR developed the BAM, and went into partnership with Billboard Magazine to produce and market the magazine. As members of the Board of Directors, the AIR principals continued to improve its features over the next eight years under the new name of Billboard Radio Monitor.

The Canadian Singles Chart was a chart compiled by the American-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan, which began publication in November 1996. It was published every Wednesday and also published on Thursday by Jam!/Canoe. The chart also appeared in Billboard until March 2006, when Billboard stopped publishing the Canadian Singles Chart in favor of the Canadian Digital Songs Sales Chart. Billboard later introduced their own singles chart for Canada, the Canadian Hot 100, on June 7, 2007.

R&R was a weekly music trade publication that followed the radio industry and tracked the monitoring of current songs by format, station and audience cumes. The magazine was a sister publication to Billboard magazine and was mostly available through subscription to people who work in the radio industry and music chart enthusiasts, as well as various record stores and newsstands. On June 5, 2009, parent company AC Nielsen ceased operations on R&R just short of three years after acquiring the former independent trade periodical. When it ceased publication in 2009, R&R was the successor-in-interest of publications that traced their operations back to 1973.

The Rhythmic chart is an airplay chart published weekly by Billboard magazine.

Latin Pop Airplay is a record chart published on Billboard, an American music and entertainment magazine, and a subchart of the Latin Airplay chart. The chart focuses on Latin pop music, namely Spanish-language pop music. It was established by the magazine on October 8, 1994 as a subchart of the Hot Latin Songs chart until October 2012 when the Hot Latin Songs changed its methodology. The first number-one song on the chart was Mañana by Cristian Castro. This chart features only singles or tracks and like most Billboard charts, is based on airplay; the radio charts are compiled using information tracked by from Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), which electronically monitors radio stations in more than 140 markets across the United States. The audience charts cross-reference BDS data with listener information compiled by the Arbitron ratings system to determine the approximate number of audience impressions made for plays in each daypart. With the issue dated August 15, 2020, Billboard revamped the chart to reflect overall airplay of Latin pop music on Latin radio stations. Instead of ranking songs being played on Latin-pop stations, rankings will be determined by the amount of airplay Latin-pop songs receive on stations that play Latin music regardless of genre. The current number-one song on the chart is "Santa Marta" by Luis Fonsi and Carlos Vives.

<i>Billboard</i> (magazine) American weekly music magazine

Billboard is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows.

Pop Airplay is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a subsidiary of the U.S.' leading marketing research company. Consumer researchers, Nielsen Audio, refers to the format as contemporary hit radio (CHR). The current number-one song on the chart is "Birds of a Feather" by Billie Eilish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brand New Bitch</span> Single by Anjulie

"Brand New Bitch" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Anjulie. It was co-written by Michel Zitron and was produced by J.O.B. The song was released to digital retailers via Universal Republic Records on May 23, 2011.

<i>Dear Love</i> (album) 2012 studio album by Suzie McNeil

Dear Love is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Suzie McNeil, released on July 24, 2012 through 604 Records. It has spawned four singles, including the top 10 Canada AC hit "Merry Go Round" and the Faber Drive duet "Love Can't Save Us Now". According to McNeil, the album "tells the story of [her] journey into love [and] loss," and lyrically, the songs revolve around the themes of heartbreak and recovery.

Latin Airplay is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It was established on October 20, 2012.

The Adult R&B Songs chart is an airplay chart that is published weekly by Billboard magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playlist mostly include contemporary R&B and traditional R&B tracks. Nielsen Audio sometimes refers to the format as Urban adult contemporary radio. Billboard created the chart in September 1993, with the first number one being "Another Sad Love Song" by Toni Braxton.

References

  1. 1 2 "BDS - Track Where Your Music Is Played". KnowTheBiz.com. 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2022-06-02.
  2. ↑ "Radio-Info.com to publish weekly Nielsen BDSRadio.com charts". Radio-Info.com. September 10, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2011.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. 1 2 White, Adam (May 23, 1986). "Submarines, Playlists, & Listening By Computer" (PDF). R&R. p. 37. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Firm Offers Airplay Monitoring" (PDF). R&R. May 9, 1986. pp. 3, 8. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  5. ↑ Freeman, Kim (May 17, 1986). "Computerized Airplay Tracking System Proposed As Alternative To Playlists" (PDF). Billboard. p. 10. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  6. ↑ BillboardGuy (2018-10-19). "Hot Country Singles: The First Chart to Incorporate Modern BDS Tracking". Billboard Chart Rewind. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  7. ↑ BillboardGuy (2021-11-23). "30 Years Ago, The Billboard Hot 100 Singles Were Forever Changed By Broadcast Data Systems and SoundScan". Billboard Chart Rewind. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  8. ↑ "Pre-Loaded iPod Killer Emerges; 30,000 Songs On Tap". Digital Music News. 2008-03-09. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  9. ↑ Lipshutz,AP, Jason; Lipshutz, Jason; AP (2010-04-13). "SESAC at 80". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  10. ↑ Dinger, Ed. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 98. pp. 260–265.
  11. ↑ "COMPANY NEWS; Dutch Buyer Acquires BPI". The New York Times. 1994-01-15. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  12. ↑ "Nielsen Sells Music Division To Billboard Magazine Owner". Insideradio.com. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
  13. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (2020-10-22). "Penske Media, MRC Form Database Joint Venture". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
  14. ↑ Spangler, Todd (2022-03-16). "Luminate Is the New Name of P-MRC Data, Source of Music and Entertainment Industry Data". Variety. Retrieved 2022-06-17.
  15. ↑ Eggertsen, Chris (2022-09-22). "Luminate Partners With Mediabase for Radio Tracking Data". Billboard. Retrieved 2023-06-06.


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