Plain answers to the questions a reader should be able to ask about any site that recommends things.
Who runs this site
Keith Williams, through Keith Williams LLC, a veteran-owned small business in Racine, Wisconsin. There is no staff, no agency and no third party writing this content. More about me.
How this site makes money
This site exists to host the playlists that the books point to. It carries no advertising and sells nothing directly.
Amazon links. Links to books on this site may be Amazon Associates affiliate links. If you buy through one, Amazon pays a small commission at no extra cost to you. The price you pay is identical either way.
Books I wrote. Every book recommended on this site is one I wrote and published myself. I am not reviewing other people’s books and then quietly earning on them — I am telling you about my own work, and you should weigh it accordingly.
How the song lists are chosen
The song pool for each book comes from the published Billboard charts for that decade, including the period sub-charts that existed at the time. Selection is by chart performance, not by my taste, and not by anyone paying for placement.
No label, artist, publisher or rights holder has paid for inclusion in a puzzle or a playlist, and none has been offered the opportunity. If that ever changes it will be disclosed on this page before it happens, not after.
The playlists
Playlists are hosted on Spotify, not here. No audio is stored on or streamed from this site. I earn nothing from plays. Spotify’s own terms and privacy policy govern what happens once you open a playlist there.
Corrections
Chart data from sixty years ago contains errors, and so does my processing of it. When a factual error is reported and confirmed, the correction goes into the next printing of the affected book and, where it affects this site, onto the page itself. Report one here.
What is AI-assisted and what is not
I use software extensively to build these books — chart parsing, puzzle generation, and an exhaustive solver that proves every Challenge Puzzle has exactly one answer. That is what makes the uniqueness guarantee possible at all.
The editorial decisions — which decades, which themes, what goes in, what gets thrown out, and everything written on this site — are mine.