How does an artist, a producer, a video maker or a groupie measure the success of their work? Through the singles charts - when a song is released for commercialization then a music video is launched and the groupies or fan clubs are gathered; their mission is to call and request as often as possible a single song of a particular artist; the higher the number of times this song is played on radio and video music channels the higher it will rank in the single charts; the higher it ranks in the single charts, the more popular and successful the artist will become.

Of course it's not all that simple, but nearly. First you need to get a good lyricist to write perfect lyrics that will make awesome social music and creative hits and match him/her to a good composer who, together, will create a great song; once the song has been created, you need a very charismatic performer, such as Beyonc? or someone of the like and then you add to the mixture a great music video maker who will add the imagery necessary to make the song attractive to the specific target market you want to reach; once all of this is set on place, you then call one or two of the official fan clubs that this particular performer has and give them the mission and assignment, you then have a small army of anywhere between 50-100+ fans that are devoted to requesting this song all day long without any pay but a simple breakfast with the performer.

This small army might sound big, but actually the target market is generally 10 times that amount, so its services is key to placing the song in the singles chart. Once the song has been in the singles chart for the first week then the radio station will insert and program it without the need of that continuous calling, the army can stand down a little bit and the song will stay in the chart.

Being in the singles charts means the possibility of reaching a bigger range of the target market and possibly acquiring more member of this market as well as having some occasional shoppers (people who buy the CD for that particular song) and is a great way to promote the rest of the CD without the need to develop the same logistic used for the first song.

However being in the singles charts for several weeks is great but sometimes it's not enough and there is a clear need to stay in the top 5 or even in a number 1 position. Once again, the small army of groupies and fans come into place. Their efforts in requesting over and over again the chosen song and music video have to doubled and tripled; their pay is often an autographed item or even a date with a lucky one'A cheap expense if you consider that is through their efforts and love of the lyrics and music as a whole that a performer can achieve a platinum record.

Gold, silver and platinum records are the means in which the music industry rewards the artists that have achieved to stay in the singles charts top 10 spots for the longest time.