How does a "hit record" happen nowadays?

Question

I grew up in the fifties. We had 45 RPM records, and a song was a hit when it sold a lot of them, and also got a lot of play on juke boxes. But since then, singles haven't really been sold. How then does a single song become a hit? Now there are mp3's, so I suppose singles can once more be sold, but would someone explain to me how it's all happening in this day and age?

Answer 1

well, a"hit record" is with itunes, and sales, etc etc. another way is since the singles are played on the radio, you can count the amount of times that song gets requested by the listeners.