Dutch Top 40
The Dutch Top 40 (Dutch: Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart compiled by Stichting Nederlandse Top 40.[1] It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting. Joost den Draaijer initiated the Top 40 in the Netherlands. The show currently airs on Fridays from 2 to 6 PM on Qmusic.
This chart is often confused with the Single Top 100 and the Mega Top 50.History[edit]
On January 2, 1965, the first Top 40 was compiled, with its first #1 hit "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles. In September 1974, the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40 bought the Top 40 and named it De Nederlandse Top 40. The Dutch Top 40 is one of the four official charts in the Netherlands, the other three being the B2B Single Top 100, which is based entirely on pure sales and streaming, the Mega Top 30 from (NPO 3FM) which, like the Dutch Top 40 also includes airplay data.[2]
From October 4. 1974 until May 20. 1976, the Top 40 was broadcast by TROS on the pop radio station Hilversum 3, presented by Dutch famous DJ Ferry Maat. From May 28, 1976 until November 29. 1985 the Top 40 was broadcast by Veronica on Hilversum 3. As of December 1. 1985, after the rename of the station name to Radio 3, the Top 40 continued to be broadcast by Veronica on Radio 3.
In 1981 and 1982, Stichting Nederlandse Top 40 ran several trade fairs in both the Netherlands and Belgium.[3]
In January 1993 Radio 3 decided that the broadcasting of two hit lists (the other one was the Nationale Top 100) on one radio station must come to an end and therefore as from February 7. 1993 Radio 3 started to broadcast a new hitlist: the Mega Top 50 and wanted to terminate the broadcasting of the Top 40.[4] Due to a lawsuit of the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40,[5] Veronica had to continue broadcasting the Dutch Top 40 on Radio 3 until December 18, 1993.
Meanwhile the Dutch Top 40 was also broadcast on the Dutch commercial radiostation Radio 538 since June 1993. The list continued to be broadcast on this radiostation until December 28. 2018, when Radio 538 discontinued the broadcasting of the Dutch Top 40. As from January 4. 2019, the Top 40 is broadcast by the Dutch commercial radiostation Qmusic.
Compilation[edit]
Composition[edit]
For most of its history, the Top 40 was based on sales figures of record stores. These were collected through telephone surveys. As of 1999, the airplay of a limited number of radio stations was included.[6] Between 2006 and 2014, download figures were added to the mix. They were removed again because supposedly, download sales could be easily manipulated by record companies or artists.[7]
As of February 2014, the chart is a combination of airplay, streaming, and social media trends.[8] The more often a song gets played on the radio, the higher its ranking in the Top 40.
To compute year-end chart positions, the weekly #1 positions get 40 points, the #2 positions get 39 points, etc. These weekly scores are then added up and sorted by single to determine the ranking.