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[Gambo]

For those who remember the inclusion of download sales circa 2004-05, what effect did it have on the charts?? Did it cause the charts to become slower-moving for example?

Sales haven't dipped to 2004 levels, so perhaps the inclusion of streaming wasn't as NECESSARY as the inclusion of downloads or perhaps its pre-emptive as streaming will be more dominant in a few years time.

It had to be a pre-emptive strike, after the embarrassment of dismissing illegal downloads for so long and then when they woke up a belated rush to try and monetise the format, and then work out how to introduce any emergent legal market into the mainstream singles chart. They didn't want to be caught pants-down again, and so having reached a consensus that streaming was showing exponential growth and was likely the 'next big thing' with consuming digital music, if anything they were a little too quick-off-the mark in integrating audio streaming with the sales chart.

The problem with the integration of the download market into the physical was that the OCC had to phase it in in three steps which in the end took 20 months, and in the process made far more of a mockery of the main singles chart than was necessary. Initially, from 23 April 2005 only download sales for titles available physically in the last 52 weeks could be counted. Then, from 18 March 2006 download sales for titles available physically in a week's time could be counted, but this was offset by a woeful decision to exclude them again from two weeks after any deletion of the physical release. All these moves were designed to try and appease competing voices within the industry, and as it is they who have influence on the way the charts are run that was understandable, but the chart was very partial and failed to reflect the rapidly-rising digital market properly until 13 January 2007 when sales of both formats at any stage could be counted regardless. Looking back at that mess, even those of us who felt that combining streaming and sales in the mainstream tabulation was pushed through somewhat prematurely given the still-resilient state of the downloads sector, we should at least be thankful that once they'd decided to integrate them, they did so cleanly and on a complete basis, with no daft exemptions or sops. Okay the ratio of 100 streams to 1 sale is arbitrary and for many two just don't compute on any basis, but it was a clear and easy measure.

Despite these teething problems, from 23 Apr '05 one can see some slow-down in the chart as regards the length of time many singles would remain on the Top 75. Whilst climbs to a peak were yet to return en masse, with most entries still being at peak, decline could be every much more graceful thanks to the ongoing trickle-sell of the download format. From 18 Mar '06 climbs, at least on week 2, inevitably became more common where still-significant first-week physical sales kicked-in on a title already available at least a week before to download, and from 13 Jan '07 climbs became as common as instant peaks as download sales steadily built towards a physically-driven peak and then quite likely a very steady withdrawal, in the case of some of the big-hitters. As CD sales dissipated and effectively left the equation for most releases, all forms of chart behaviour and movement could be seen based on download performance alone, and so it's hard to characterise the charts since the late '00s. But I think most would agree, downloads did and still do slow down what had become in the late physical era a dizzying turnover of singles. Many welcomed this, as one can more-readily follow and get familiar with the bona fide established hits, yet it's not boring at the top - still plenty of No 1/Top 10 entries etc as well as long-runners and slow-burners. Although I see on some sites that some are now starting to bemoan this trend and are yearning for the constant 30-new-entry Top 75 weeks, numerous high debuts and rapid declines that typified the mid '90s to mid '00s! They are likely to become even more disconsolate with the official combined chart, because the more it takes precedence, audio streaming can only slow movement down even more. It's already showing outside the Top 20 in particular, with numerous huge commercial hits and radio-favourites perennially bobbing back up and down the rungs. An instant sales hit may take several weeks to blossom as an equivalent streaming success, if ever it does so.

Apologies - a bit off-topic now.