Back in the day of audio CDs, remixes is what normally propelled songs to the top of the charts. Singles would be sent to radio and soon after they gained considerable airplay CD singles would be released. There were many types of CD singles, but normally they'd contained the main song + either a bunch of remixes (anywhere from 1 to half a dozen or more) or a new song/b side. A lot of people who already had the album would buy the CD single just for the remixes. That was one of the main ways to send post-album singles to the top of the charts. Quite often these CD singles were heavily discounted (not gonna name any names, but those who know, know) 

 

*As long as there was no fraud involved (like in case of BTS) or any stupid shenanigans used (like alternative digital covers) I don't see a problem with remixes. 

 

**I just wish artists put a lot more effort into making them good/interesting/different. I love remixes. (Tatu were queens of remixes) 

they need a new rule to make remixes chart seperately on the hot 100. combining 21 versions towards one song is just silly

Sure.. A remix or two.. Not 10. 

Agreed. Remixes have been one of the biggest promotional tools in the industry since the 80s (even MHWGO had club remixes) and, when done properly, are a fantastic way to reinvent a song (shout out to Mariah).

 

It's so funny watching people lose their minds because of four remixes like pop girls in the 90s didn't have multiple DJs releasing multiple remixes (7" edits, 12", dub, etc.) for each single. Mariah's My All EP had 12 tracks. Madonna's Bedtime Story single had FIFTEEN.

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by ATWK

15 minutes ago, KatyPrismSpirit said:

they need a new rule to make remixes chart separately on the hot 100. combining 21 versions towards one song is just silly

I think what they should do is reduce the weight that remixes add to the main song. If the sale from main song is 1 point, then remixes should only count for 50% or 25% etc. Because in all fairness CD singles counted as 1 sale no matter how many remixes were on there. But as a tool for pushing your song higher on the charts it's fine. 

11 minutes ago, Johnny Jacobs said:

Sure.. A remix or two.. Not 10. 

You’ll see here that Dua, Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga, and many others have released remixes — sometimes 5 and 6 at a time — whether in an EP or individually. It’s a part of the business to promote remixes of your single to the fans. Most of them don’t find success, and that’s ok. The ones that do find success usually don’t have any longevity, and that’s ok too. It is what it is. The songs longevity is dependent upon its original version. A spike in sales or streams due to a remix is constrained to one week.

Also, to bring something up in here — you can call remixes manipulation or inorganic if you want (even though I disagree with the “inorganic” part, I can agree it’s definitely a push for the original song to grow its popularity). But you can’t call it fraudulent or illegitimate. With Billboard’s current model, the only illegitimate remix stats are sales or streams from non-US countries. Those get filtered out as necessary.
 

Aside from that, what Billboard reports is what you get it. If you don’t like it, you can either make your own chart or stick to the individual metric charts of sales, streaming, or airplay and decide which one matters most to you. 

5 minutes ago, Brando said:

I think what they should do is reduce the weight that remixes add to the main song. If the sale from main song is 1 point, then remixes should only count for 50% or 25% etc. 

so savage feat beyonce

et feat kanye

levitating feat dababy

save your tears feat ariana

 

should have had their points downgraded?

I don't necessarily disagree, but to be fair, those examples from the past were a one-and-done type of purchase — as in, you buy the CD single with all those remixes and your one purchase gives you all of them. Now an artist has the ability to sort of game the system by putting out the same amount of remixes that once could have been on a CD, but individually so they count as more than one sale if someone wants all (or even just more than one) of them.

They absolutely are not fair play because only Swifties buy remixes. Every other fanbase boycotts their faves when they drop remixes. 

I am not sure but I think radio counts the play for every remix as a play for the OG so I think it's a fair play to count the sales for every remix too

5 minutes ago, fridayteenage said:

so savage feat beyonce

et feat kanye

levitating feat dababy

save your tears feat ariana

 

should have had their points downgraded?

they could decide on an individual basis perhaps. if it was me i would have made Savage chart separately, cause it feels like a new song entirely 

9 minutes ago, Pop Art said:

I don't necessarily disagree, but to be fair, those examples from the past were a one-and-done type of purchase — as in, you buy the CD single with all those remixes and your one purchase gives you all of them. Now an artist has the ability to sort of game the system by putting out the same amount of remixes that once could have been on a CD, but individually so they count as more than one sale if someone wants all (or even just more than one) of them.

Ye, that makes sense, but i guess technology changed that. But also, as someone mentioned there were different remix singles in the past too. Like regular standalone singe, remix single, bside single, 7" single, 12" single, maxi single etc. Labels were always inventive with ways to give their roaster advantage

34 minutes ago, WeFoundTrouble said:

You’ll see here that Dua, Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga, and many others have released remixes — sometimes 5 and 6 at a time — whether in an EP or individually.

none of those artists released the remixes 2 weeks after the og release and +10 in 3 days, but ok. Keep your narrative biased

 

56 minutes ago, Brando said:

As long as there was no fraud involved (like in case of BTS)

It's funny that you call them "frauds" when basically they and their fandom did the same thing as Taylor and the swifties 
Both frauds. 

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by unclefloprry

I think people are forgetting that all of the remixes on a CD single still only counted as one sale. 

1 minute ago, unclefloprry said:

none of those artists released the remixes 2 weeks after the og release and +10 in 3 days, but ok. Keep your narrative biased

 

Taylor also didn’t release 10 remixes in 3 days. She didn’t release 10 remixes at all. So I’m not sure who else you might be alluding to, but that’s beside the point.

 

The point is remixes are a tactic used to boost the popularity of a song. Whether in a minor way, like with DJ/producer remixes, or in a major way, like when adding a rapper or a singer as a feature. Neither of these two methods of remixing are fraudulent or illegitimate. Whether you release them all at once, all weeks apart, the week of release, or 2 3 4 weeks out from the original singles release — none of that matters. The remixes either succeed for the week or they don’t.
 

For the record, Ed Sheeran released about 12 “2step” remixes in about a 2 week span. And yet Shivers didn’t skyrocket up the Billboard charts. And he’s in the top 3 biggest male artists of this day and age.

You guys want us to condemn Taylor for doing things other artists do, when really the problem you all have is that she succeeds where others fail.

Both of these songs were global hits, and no amount of remixes takes that away (nor are they responsible for the original songs overall success.) Same goes for Anti-Hero.  

 

 

 

10 minutes ago, unclefloprry said:

It's funny that you call them "frauds" when basically they and their fandom did the same thing as Taylor and the swifties 

Not this again when BTS had funds sent from all over the world to the US

 

 

6 minutes ago, TheGreatestX said:

I think people are forgetting that all of the remixes on a CD single still only counted as one sale. 

There were multiple versions of singles with different remixes back in the day too 

10 minutes ago, WeFoundTrouble said:

 

Both of these songs were global hits, and no amount of remixes takes that away (nor are they responsible for the original songs overall success.) Same goes for Anti-Hero.  

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, inmymendes said:

 

That’s a wonderful thing for him to do but it doesn’t negate anything I said. Those “2step” remixes are not responsible for the success of that song during its run as a single, and it’s also not applicable to Shivers which has a bunch of production-only remixes (like Anti-hero).

 

But I’m glad he uses his platform for benevolent causes!

I have no problem with artists releasing remixes to maximize their chance to go #1. The problem is that remixes nowadays are so lazy and cheap, usually, a random DJ will just take the song, add a new instrumental to it and that's it.

 

I miss when artists were actually invested in their remixes, resing the song and basically create a new song, like Mariah did in the 90s/2000s for example.

51 minutes ago, WeFoundTrouble said:

That’s a wonderful thing for him to do but it doesn’t negate anything I said. Those “2step” remixes are not responsible for the success of that song during its run as a single, and it’s also not applicable to Shivers which has a bunch of production-only remixes (like Anti-hero).

 

But I’m glad he uses his platform for benevolent causes!

Ok

I have no problem with remixes by the way. All of our faves should take lessons from Taylor if they want to chart better on Billboard. She sold sold so many pure sales in a streaming era. So congrats to her! Release as many versions and remixes as you want

Edited November 14, 20223 yr by inmymendes

6 minutes ago, inmymendes said:

Ok

I have no problem with remixes by the way. All of our faves should take lessons from Taylor if they want to chart better on Billboard. She sold sold so many pure sales in a streaming era. So congrats to her! Release as many versions and remixes as you want

Agreed 100%, I don’t see a problem with remixes either (Butter was the outlier but that’s because Non-US fans were manipulating the charts) 

ATRL is just selective about who is allowed to do remixes and who isn’t. 

They’re fair yeah. It’s just that releasing them strategically throughout the week in exclusive places with the clear idea it will get you another week at #1 is clearly gaming the system. Not saying that’s right or wrong — in fact I’d say it’s totally fair, tbh — but not everyone feels the need to resort to those kinds of tactics, especially not for a third week at #1.  

 

Obviously Anti Hero will stay at #1 next week, it’s just an interesting case study. Artists who sell a lot of albums have to get creative with singles sometimes.

Edited November 15, 20223 yr by collin