Yet another new feature in the RIAA Radar, except this time it’s bigger: search and browse through results like it’s your damn birthday. Besides being able to buy your Sauconys and novelty t-shirts on eBay, being indie has never been easier.

Special super-hot news/self-post!

RIAA Radar: The RIAA Radar is a tool that music consumers can use to easily and instantly distinguish whether an album was released by a member of the Recording Industry Association of America. You add the bookmarklet to your favorites list, go to any album on Amazon, click the bookmark and it will tell you if the album was released by a member of the RIAA!

Don’t ask me why I think of these kinds of things, but here goes: Is it possible to statistically define the placement of a hit song on an album? This question leads other directions: Is it possible to use that statistic/formula to create a hit song? Will the placement of a song affect whether the band becomes a one-hit wonder?

Do you have any ideas? Any theories? How does the track order get selected for an album (which obviously may be different between the way a band and a studio producer picks them)? Does sandwiching bad songs in between hits (see: sitcoms) work? Does grouping songs give you a statistically better chance to have a hit? Email me.

Here are some (unreliable/unscientific) test results: For this week’s Billboard Hot 100, 9 (nine) out of the top 20 songs are Track 3 on their respective albums. Nine! Almost half! Five of the top 20 are Track 2, two are Track 1, and two are Track 10 (someone explain that one.) Interesting preliminary results.

So many questions, so much data to handle, so little time to write a paper on the subject, so little money to buy the data from Billboard…

I am really starting to appreciate today’s rappers and their use of words that have multiple meanings through slang, like the word “ice”. I’ve never heard the word “ice” used so much in my life. Some favorites:

A lil nigga seventeen playin’ with six figures

Got so much ice you can skate on a nigga

-“Bling Bling” by Hot Boys

I got so many karats, I could feed ten rabbits

Got so much ice, cool me down when I wear it

-“Never Had Shit” by Juvenile

OK, let’s talk about this ice that I’m carryin

All these karats like I’m a fuckin vegetarian

-“Shine” by Lil’ Wayne

“Selling music today at traditional prices is like trying to sell lemonade
when the guy down the street is giving away free beer.” -Nicholas Butterworth, CEO, MTVi Group