Not quite in OED: spin (radio term)

Wed Jan 22 14:24:40 UTC 2014

First consider spin n.1 2.f.

> 2. f. colloq. The act of playing a gramophone record, esp. on the air;
> a session of playing gramophone records.
> 1977 Broadcast 28 Nov. 10/1 Records not receiving maxiplay but likely
> to get at least one daytime spin.
> 1977 R.A.F. News 11-24 May 20/6 Disc jockey SAC 'Duke' Bedford set off
> on a record non-stop spin of 72½ hours.

A story in WSJ a few days ago (Radio's Answer to Spotify? Less Variety
http://goo.gl/jkC9sd ) covered the current trend in music broadcasting
on the radio--an increased presence of the most popular songs. What the
radio stations have been doing is pushing the most popular songs with
ever more increasing frequency on the (research-based) theory that when
people hear something familiar they continue to tune in, but switch out
when they hear something unfamiliar.

> The top 10 songs last year were played close to twice as much on the
> radio than they were 10 years ago, according to Mediabase, a division
> of Clear Channel Communications Inc. that tracks radio spins for all
> broadcasters. The most-played song last year, Robin Thicke's "Blurred
> Lines," aired 749,633 times in the 180 markets monitored by Mediabase.
> That is 2,053 times a day on average. The top song in 2003, "When I'm
> Gone" by 3 Doors Down, was played 442,160 times that year.
> ...
> The top country song last year, Darius Rucker's "Wagon Wheel," was
> played 229,633 times, while 2003's top country hit, Lonestar's "My
> Front Porch Looking In," got only 162,519 spins.
> ...
> Songwriters and publishers of the top-spun songs benefit from the
> extra airplay they get now, since they get paid royalties for every
> radio spin at a rate that increases once a song becomes a hit, thanks
> to the way performing-rights organizations distribute publishing
> royalties.

While totally off-putting to people like me, who can't stand musical
repetition on the radio, it does appear to work on teenagers who listen
to the same songs over and over and over... but I digress. The
phenomenon was described as "the number of spins of the top 10 songs
nearly doubled".

We've previously covered all the industry terminology that's been
carried over from obsolete technology. Computers were one major category
for such terms, but radio is another. While not spinning "gramophone
records" any more, the number of times a song appears on the radio is
counted as "spins".

http://goo.gl/EMtrLS
How To Track Your Radio Spins
> If this happens, you want to make sure that your spins are accurately
> tracked and counted. There are a couple of systems that will track
> radio spins for you.
> ...
> This is the standard for monitoring radio, television and internet
> airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections.

http://goo.gl/D62d0y
> It’s important to have a goal when going to secure radio spins. That
> goal must be more significant that just wanting to hear your song on
> the radio. Radio spins are not for artists trying to secure a record
> deal, nor are they for people without a healthy promotional budget. If
> radio spins led to a good deal that secured an artist’s career
> successfully, everyone with $50,000 to spend would have a successful
> career in the music business. And they do not.
> If you look at the top selling artists with careers (NOT the one hit
> wonders), not one of them got a deal from having radio spins. There’s
> a good reason for that. Having radio spins does NOT guarantee CD
> sales, only selling your CD is a true test of CD sales. However, spins
> do often equal ringtone sales ($2.99 each) and single download sales
> for 99 cents each, which make the record labels salivate at the
> thought of quick one-off money, but it has yet to build the career of
> a serious recording artist. Would you rather be The Shop Boyz or
> Jay-Z? Would you rather have one hit song like “Laffy Taffy” or be
> putting out your 9th CD like Snoop with multi-million dollar touring
> opportunities, film and TV deals, endorsements, and other income
> producing opportunities?
> ...
> No radio promoter should deliver spins solely where they have
> relationships unless you are a major label targeting the entire US.

http://goo.gl/aUN9
Recording artists and radio stations fight over royalties, air play and spin
> "Soul Man" got 5,645 spins on the radio -- an average of 15.5 times a
> day -- last year, and "Hold On, I'm Comin'" hit the airwaves 3,387
> times, or 9.3 times daily, according to the office of Barry Massarsky,
> an economist who works with the record industry.

http://goo.gl/WBLnB2
> The playlist of America’s leading Top 40 station indicates that they
> have 4 power currents in rotation. Bruno Mars’ It Will Rain leads the
> A-list with one play every seven quarter-hours. It seems that Katy
> Perry kicks off the B-list; the secondary currents category starts
> with an average 2 hours and 45 minutes rotation for The One That Got
> Away. It moved down from 5 to 1 in WHTZ’s airplay chart and reveals an
> interesting fact: the number of spins within the #1 playlist position
> was significantly different a week earlier.
> ...
> Last week’s most played song by Katy Perry ‘got away’ with 114 spins
> -- a rotation of no less than 168 / 114 = 1 hour and 28 minutes! This
> week’s #1 Bruno Mars got 94 spins, 20 plays (17,5%) less than Katy
> Perry the week before.

The verb gets equal treatment (spin v. 10.h.):

> 10. h. To play (a gramophone record).
> 1965 Listener 23 Dec. 1036/3 If he will dust off his old Plum Label
> HMV 78 ... and spin it, he will hear Gertrude Lawrence very distinctly
> saying to Noël Coward: 'Strange how potent cheap music is!'
> 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 v. 140 She sat alone ... listening to
> Mucho's colleague Rabbit Warren spin records.

Again, here the reference is to the physical act of literally spinning a
record on a turntable.

Compare to the use on radio sites:

(same links as above)

http://goo.gl/jkC9sd
> Veteran radio promoter Richard Palmese said he tells programmers they
> should spin a new song at least 150 times during peak listening
> hours--basically rush hours--before they draw any conclusions about
> whether fans like it or not, since many songs take time to grow on people.

http://goo.gl/WBLnB2
> Constantly High Rotations is my new definition for Contemporary Hit
> Radio in the States, as Top 40 stations in the USA spin the biggest
> hits as much as every 1 1/2 hours.

> Recurrents and classics categories include more songs and have a
> longer turnover time, but they should rotate perfectly as well. If a
> song spins in one daypart, it should first appear in every of the
> other dayparts before playing in the same again. Scheduling software
> developer Steve Warren writes that a turnover of 'X days plus 5 to 7
> hours' for recurrents and classics lets larger song categories rotate
> naturally through different dayparts.

http://goo.gl/D62d0y
> Once your song begins to spin, it’s important to keep supporting it in
> the marketplace.

[Bonus: spin maintenance]

http://goo.gl/U4iFb7
> In addition, there are "spin maintenance" charges to keep the song on
> the list.

Jesse is going to hate me for doing this, but...
======================================================================
Other issues with spin entries. The last verb draft addition (March
2004) reads

> /intr./ Of a cyclist: to ride, esp. at high speed; /spec./ to pedal
> very quickly and fluidly.

That's not quite right. Compare the examples:

> 1978 N.Y. Times 24 Apr. c13/1 It's spring ... and the cyclists are
> spinning along--and away.
> 1981 Bicycling May 22/1 Allow yourself 15 to 20 minutes to warm up,
> spinning in a low gear at 90 rpm or a little more.
> 1998 Cycling & Mountain Biking Today Apr. 2/1 A fixed-wheel fitted
> track bike for spinning round the vélodrome.
> 2003 Spectator (Hamilton, Ont.) (Nexis) 28 June a5 Cyclists spin by on
> practice runs through the race route, dodging the cars that have
> sneaked through the barricades.

The first two examples seem to reflect the listed lemma. But the third
refers to making full loops around the velodrome, not so much to
pedaling hard. A similar example might be "She was spinning around the
room like a whirling dervish, greeting every guest in turn." And the
last one is not related at all--the "spin by" reference is simply to
moving fast and has nothing to do with pedaling (compare to the
metaphorical/poetic use in "moments spinning by"). So it seems that
several different meanings are lumped together under one roof.

Also, the traditional meaning in spin v. 2.a. and 2.c.

> 2. a. trans. To draw out (wool, flax, man-made fibre, or other
> material) and convert into threads either by the hand or by machinery.
> c. To convert (or intr., to admit of being converted) into thread,
> etc., by spinning. Also transf.

does not reflect the metaphor "spin X into gold", which is undoubtedly
derived from it. Is it closer to 3.b.?

> 3. b. In figurative contexts. to spin street-thread , etc.: see street
> n. and adj. to spin a yarn (to tell a story): see yarn n.

Looking at the examples given there, it seems not. 3.b. is "manufacture
X" (e.g., spin a web of deceit), while 2.a. and 2.c. are "transform
[from X] [into Y]" (in particular, examples in 2.c. contain "into", but
in 2.a. both PP objects are optional or may involve other prepositions).

Also compare 4.b., which also doesn't quite fit "spin X into gold":

> 4. b. To evolve, produce, contrive, or devise, in a manner suggestive
> of spinning.

There is also no entry under PV1 spin off for the business sense, as in
"spin off a subsidiary" [into an independent company]. This one also has
an extended meaning in entertainment, as in spinning off another
franchise (e.g., one TV show "lending" characters to start another TV show).

I'm also wondering if "take a spin at the wheel" or more general "take a
spin [at X]" has evolved completely into "take a turn" rather than "take
control of the wheel" or "complete a circuit" (did this evolve from a
car racing metaphor?). The phrase does serve dual purpose,
however--"take a spin at the wheel" also means taking a chance a la slot
machine (ironically, Amazon Free App of the Day is Spin the Wheel--a
crack at Wheel of Fortune).

http://goo.gl/Sy9CYt
Pope invites friend to take a spin in St. Peter's Square: "What am I
doing here? Mamma mia!"
> Pope Francis has broken with papal protocol once again, inviting a
> friend for a spin in his panoramic white car.
> The Rev. Fabian Baez, a priest from Francis' hometown in Buenos Aires,
> didn't have a VIP ticket for the pope's weekly general audience
> Wednesday. But as soon as Francis saw him in the crowd, the pope
> signaled for the Vatican gendarmes to help Baez jump the barricade and
> approach him.
> Francis then invited him to hop aboard, and Baez accompanied Francis
> on his tour through St. Peter's Square as the pope waved to
> well-wishers and kissed babies handed up to him.
> Baez said he was shocked by Francis' invitation, telling reporters
> afterward: "I said to myself 'What am I doing here? Mamma mia!'"

http://goo.gl/9yz4AZ
Pope Francis invites boy with Down Syndrome for spin on popemobile
> Pope Francis has given a 17-year-old boy with Down Syndrome the ride
> of his life -- sort of.
> Francis invited Alberto di Tullio up onto his open-top Mercedes at the
> end of his general audience Wednesday, letting him spin around on the
> pontiff's white chair while tens of thousands of people looked on.

Wiktionary:
> (idiomatic) To go for a ride; especially, to try riding or driving
> something.

http://goo.gl/PnCW7H
Video: Take a spin around the Michigan Stadium ice rink two days before
the Winter Classic
> Check out the video above to see the view the players will have
> Wednesday (albeit with a lot more people there and at a much faster
> speed).

http://goo.gl/frgY0I
Take A Spin Through The Solar System

http://goo.gl/rasVBv
'Glee' and 'Pretty Little Liars' Actors Will Take a Spin on 'Dancing
With the Stars'

VS-)

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