The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company intends to be the initial focus of promotional efforts and radio airplay, with the aim of it becoming a hit record. The B-side is a secondary recording that typically receives less attention, although some B-sides have been as successful as, or more so than, their A-sides.
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) operates an awards program based on the certified number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards. Certification is not automatic; for an award to be made, the record label must first request certification. The audit is conducted against net shipments after returns, which includes albums sold directly to retailers and one-stops, direct-to-consumer sales and other outlets.
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory.
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.
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in Billboard magazine. Billboard biz, the online extension of the Billboard charts, provides additional weekly charts, as well as year-end charts. The two most important charts are the Billboard Hot 100 for songs and Billboard 200 for albums, and other charts may be dedicated to a specific genre such as R&B, country, or rock, or they may cover all genres. The charts can be ranked according to sales, streams, or airplay, and for main song charts such as the Hot 100 song chart, all three data are used to compile the charts. For the Billboard 200 album chart, streams and track sales are included in addition to album sales.
The Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) or the Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy. It was established in 1992, when major corporate labels left the previously existing Associazione dei Fonografici Italiani (AFI). During the following years, most of the remaining Italian record labels left AFI to join the new organisation. As of 2011, FIMI represents 2,500 companies operating in the music business.
The Billboard Hot Latin Songs is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, radio airplay, and online streaming, and only predominantly Spanish-language songs are allowed to rank. The chart was established by the magazine on September 6, 1986, and was originally based on airplay on Latin music radio stations. Although the chart predominantly allows Spanish-language songs, songs in English and Portuguese have charted.
The Canadian Album Chart, also known as Billboard Canadian Albums, is the official record chart ranking the 100 most popular music albums and extended plays in Canada. It is compiled weekly by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Luminate, and published every Tuesday by American music and entertainment magazine Billboard. The albums are compared across all genres, ranked by album sales, audio on-demand streaming activity and digital sales of tracks from albums.
Top Latin Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all Billboard album charts, the chart is based on sales. Nielsen SoundScan compiles the sales data from merchants representing more than 90 percent of the U.S. music retail market. The sample includes sales at music stores, the music departments of electronics and department stores, direct-to-consumer transactions, and Internet sales of physical albums or digital downloads. A limited array of verifiable sales from concert venues is also tabulated. To rank on this chart, an album must have 51% or more of its content recorded in Spanish. Listings of Top Latin Albums are also shown on Telemundo's music page through a partnership between the two companies. As of January 26, 2017, a multi-metric methodology to compile the Top Latin Albums chart was adopted by Billboard, which also incorporates track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units.
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Greece, or simply IFPI Greece, is the Greek branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and is the official charts provider and recording sales certification body for Greece. The association compiles and publishes a Top 75 album sales chart. The chart is sponsored by Cyta Hellas.
Best: Third Universe is the third greatest hits album by Japanese recording artist Kumi Koda. It was released as a double album with her eighth studio album Universe on February 3, 2010 by Rhythm Zone. The greatest hits album includes singles between May 2006 "Koi no Tsubomi" and her December 2008 single "Stay with Me", with a bonus disc with newly recorded material. As a double album, it was released in four different formats; a two album bundle, a two album and DVD bundle, a two album first pressing bundle, and a two album digital release. A fifth format was released, but only featured the compilation.
25 is the third studio album by the English singer-songwriter Adele, released on 20 November 2015 by XL Recordings and Columbia Records. The album is titled as a reflection of her life and frame of mind at 25 years old and is termed a "make-up record". Its lyrical content features themes of Adele "yearning for her old self, her nostalgia", and "melancholia about the passage of time" according to an interview with the singer by Rolling Stone, as well as themes of motherhood, new love, and regret.
"Bae Bae" is a song recorded by South Korean boy band Big Bang. It was released as a digital single on May 1, 2015, through YG Entertainment, serving as one of the eight lead singles from the band's third Korean-language studio album Made (2016); the song, along with "Loser", was initially included in the single album M. It marks the band's first release in three years, since Still Alive in June 2012. Written and produced by G-Dragon, Teddy Park and T.O.P, "Bae Bae" was noted for its sexually suggestive lyrics and music video.
"If You" is a song recorded by South Korean boy band Big Bang. It was released digitally on July 1, 2015 by YG Entertainment, as the third single from Made, being included in the single album D. It was written by group member G-Dragon who also produced the song with P.K and Dee.P. "If You" became a chart-topper in South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, and went on to sell over five million digital units across Asia.
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditional album sales. The album-equivalent unit was introduced in the mid-2010s as an answer to the drop of album sales in the 21st century. Album sales more than halved from 1999 to 2009, declining from a $14.6 to $6.3 billion industry, partly due to cheap digitally downloaded singles. For instance, the only albums that went platinum in the United States in 2014 were the Frozen soundtrack and Taylor Swift's 1989, whereas several artists' works had in 2013.
"Fxxk It" is a song recorded by South Korean boy band Big Bang. The group's first single in over a year, "Fxxk It" was released alongside "Last Dance" on December 13, 2016, in conjunction with the group's third Korean-language studio album Made through YG Entertainment. It was written by long-time group collaborator Teddy Park with group members G-Dragon and T.O.P, with production handled by the first two contributors along with R. Tee.
"What Ifs" is a song recorded by American singer Kane Brown featuring fellow American singer Lauren Alaina for Brown's self-titled debut album. The song was released with the album through RCA Nashville and was serviced to radio as the second single on February 6, 2017.
The Rolling Stone charts tabulated the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States. Chart data was powered by analytics firm Alpha Data and results were published on the website of pop culture magazine Rolling Stone, both of which are properties of the United States–based Penske Media Corporation (PMC).
We Boom is the third extended play of South Korean–Chinese boy band NCT Dream, the third and teen-aged sub-unit of the South Korean boy band NCT. Released by SM Entertainment and Dreamus digitally on July 26, 2019, and later physically three days later, the EP consists of six tracks, and is the first release of the unit to not contain any Mandarin version for the lead single. SM founder Lee Soo-man continued as the release's executive producer, while several songwriters and producers, such as Ryan S. Jhun, Yoo Young-jin, Sonny J Mason, Deez, Moonshine, Cazzi Opeia, Benjamin Ingrosso, Livvi Franc, Louis Schoorl, Bobii Lewis, Jamil `Digi` Christmas, MZMC, and others, contributed both lyrics and production to the extended play. It was the unit's first major release as a sextet, following the graduation of member Mark in December 2018.
