I know back when from elementary school to early high school 01-06. I recall the lower half of the top 40 (29, 33 etc. those) got a lot pf play! maybe not as equal amount as the top 10... but a good amount.

It seems for the past few years i swear they just play the top 20 songs over and over and over. So many of the lower top 40 i barely even hear getting played...

How does this work? if a song is in the top 40, it's one of the most listened to songs out right? didn't the lower top 40 get a lot of play back in the day? and what about songs that are in the top 40 for like a week or two? how much play do they get?

Nowadays they have itunes, youtube, and a bunch of other crap that confuses me. A song can go in the top 40 or top 20 even! for literally like a week. But i never once hear it played on the radio...

I honestly get confused to how this all works out. How much play does the lower half of the top 40 get? and how does a song get to lets say #32, which isn't high, but is not low. And some people know it, but many will have never heard it.

Am i the only one confused by this?

Well social media views and plays are counting now. People watch a video for around a week, realize it's not that good, and then it slowly fades away.

What I hate is when Top 40 stations play, like you said, the top 10 maybe... the rest of the time it's hits from like 2010 they play them like they're brand new. I hate it! Give me the rest of the countdown.

I NOTICED THAT TOO CINNY!!!!!

At work when they play the radio... it's like the top 10. Then We Found Love or Give Me Everything by Ne-Yo. And also California Love & Still DRE get play. They play the top 10, then the 10 from a few years ago, and sometimes a 90's jam.

Lol soon they'll only play top 5.... It's all now about the number one single

I think the role of radio has changed a lot and the stations are now locked in conservative mode. Everyone is losing ads and listenership, they are struggling to stay alive and making the safest decisions they think they can make.

Maybe they were able to take more risks before, when there were fewer options for listening to music. People would stay tuned to the radio station they liked out of loyalty, knowing a song they liked would come on sooner or later. They don't have that loyalty anymore.

It seems to me they run a bigger risk of people getting annoyed that the radio only plays ten songs and as a result, saying "I'm not going to listen to it at all anymore."

I also realize I must sound ridiculous, arguing to this generation that "it was a better world when we had very little access to music and it cost a lot." I don't know it was necessarily better, but it was different. This is one of the side effects of the change. Mass culture gets smaller and less diverse. As the tradeoff, extreme noise bands and banjo players can now distribute their music as easily as famous stars.