Each time a listener reviews a song, their answers to the confidential review questions are incorporated into a formula that generates the five-star display. This is the same formula that generates the Garageband charts.

However, unlike the chart ranking, the five-star display is less dependent on how many other songs are in the chart: for example, an average song might be ranked #50 out of 100 or #500 out of 1,000, but would get 3.0 stars regardless.

Furthermore, while a song may "climb" up the chart as it receives its initial reviews and qualifies for higher rounds of the contest, the five-star display is designed to be a more consistent indicator of a song's overall performance.

The five-star display is graded on a steep curve: almost 65% of songs receive 2.5 - 3.5 stars, and only the top 1% of songs receive more than 4.5 stars.

last modified: 3May2004 (6 years 62 days ago)

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