Printable version of thread

Posted by: awardinary 10th February 2021, 12:45 PM

This is meant to be a helpful tool for all chart music lovers like myself, but I always have found the website to be very temperamental, spammed with advertisements and broken links.

I don’t know why there isn’t an official app that ones can use to do searches from, that would be very welcomed indeed.

As many know I’m hosting a quiz on this forum right now, and I need album chart data which I should be able to find on the OCC website, but whenever I locate the artist from their database and try to click on a link to the artist’s albums, the link just reloads the artist’s page and doesn’t display the data I need. I’ve tried using various internet browsers and the same result.

Is there another resource available for checking UK chart data specifically for albums and chart peaks and runs?

Many thanks.

Posted by: dan :: G 10th February 2021, 01:00 PM

I find that for whatever reason, the site is less buggy on Google Chrome than Safari, chart runs and pages actually load properly every time you want them to. not sure if that helps.

it’s rather annoying for me cos I don’t like Chrome as a web browser.

Posted by: Frenchie 10th February 2021, 01:06 PM

This has annoyed me for so long.

90% of the time the pages don't load properly and the ads are crazy and cover most of the page.

Also found that when I try and look at the detailed chart info for individual songs the pages reload.

You'd think they'd be able to have a good website. An app would be amazing.

Posted by: Suedehead2 10th February 2021, 06:02 PM

Yes, I've had all those issues as well. As you can imagine, I use the site regularly when compiling my weekly commentary. I've recently invested in a more powerful PC which is an improvement but its performance is often woeful. It takes ages to load all the adverts which can mean you think you are clicking on a link but end up clicking on the advert instead. And, as observed already, on a laptop the adverts cover the whole of the page so you have to scroll down to find anything.

The content is pretty good although there are some inconsistencies (e.g. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark have some entries listed under OMD) but the performance and usability are terrible.

Posted by: benj 10th February 2021, 06:04 PM

I recommend Brave for viewing the OCC website. It blocks ads but still pays the website (and pays you too!)

Posted by: Houdini 10th February 2021, 06:06 PM

The website is a lot easier to browse on a phone than on a computer/laptop. Webpages take a lot longer to load on a computer and it feels like the pop-up adverts takeover everything.

Posted by: jimwatts 10th February 2021, 06:34 PM

Just to check, there are two Singles/Albums toggles on each of the artist pages, are you using the second one (immediately above the list of singles)? That should change it to a list of albums. Whereas the first toggle is only for the summary numbers (of UK Number 1s, UK Top 10s, etc.) for either singles or albums as selected. The two toggles are independent of each other, which has confused me sometimes.

Otherwise agree with what other have said about browsers, my Android phone or Google Chrome on a laptop work best for me.

Posted by: Suedehead2 10th February 2021, 06:43 PM

The second one (that should change to a list of albums) is the one that doesn't always work. I agree that it would make more sense for the summary and the lists to be linked on one tab.

Posted by: awardinary 10th February 2021, 07:09 PM

Thanks for that tip, I will investigate this as an option!

Yeah I’m aware that there’s two options, but I’ve found whilst using Safari on my iPad (which I do have an Adblocker activated), as well as Crome (which doesn’t block adds) both seem to just reload the page you are already on when you click on links, I’ve tried this with both of the Album links you mentioned, and I don’t get to view the data I know exists there.

The most annoying part is when you try to access historical charts and you select the date and press enter then nothing happens, and this is a frequent bug in the website despite using different browsers.

Posted by: Bjork 10th February 2021, 08:12 PM

^thats true, happens all the time, you select a date, click, 90% of the time it doesn't work

personally whats worst is the artists section, many are incomplete, with many errors and omissions
you search for Drake and half his entries are missing but listed separately as Drake ft this, Drake ft that etc

Posted by: Liam.k. 11th February 2021, 04:27 AM

The issue of the page just reloading when you click the link to an artists' album history is one I've experienced a few times, but it's not very often and it soon works if you just give it a few seconds. I can't say I've had any other similar issues on the site.

I agree with Bjork that the biggest issue is some artist histories are slightly incomplete, like his example of certain collaborations being missed, albums being listed twice due to a slight difference in title (one title might include 'the', the other omits it) or, the one that bugs me a lot, some albums are split between their pre-1994 chart run and post-1994 chart run.

Posted by: Bjork 11th February 2021, 09:42 AM

for instance the other day I was looking at 21 Savage discography
under his main discography 3 tracks are missing
with Mr Right Now only listed under 21 Savage/Metro Boomin/Drake but not under 21 Savage and not under 21 Savage & Metro Boomin,
and actually the correct credit should be 21 Savage & Metro Boomin ft Drake
same with Rich N**a S**t, which only appears as 21 Savage/Metro Boomin/Young Thug

and then Sneaking' is missing on 21 Savage discography, it was released as Drake ft 21 Savage but should be in 21 Savage's discography too
but funnily it's also missing from Drake'sa discography and only found separately as Drake ft 21 Savage.

in short, a mess

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th February 2021, 02:18 PM

The A feat B situation is horribly inconsistent. Sometimes that song can be found under both A and B, while other times it isn't even listed in A's individual page. As a chart enthusiast and with a decent knowledge of how databases work, I'd love to go there with a proper database administrator and get it sorted out but I doubt the OCC would want to pay for it.

Posted by: Bré 11th February 2021, 02:50 PM

It also doesn't help that the website seems to somewhat arbitrarily abbreviate or completely omit artist credits on collaborations seemingly just to save space. I get it for the presentation of individual charts but there's no reason for them to not include the full credits for database purposes.

To use a recent example, 'Lemonade' has always been credited on the site to 'Internet Money/Gunna/Toliver' - they seem to have been clever enough to still include it on Don Toliver's chart history page despite his name being abbreviated, but it is missing from NAV's chart history despite him unambiguously being credited on the song, simply because his name was omitted to save space. (Ironically despite his name being the shortest of the 4 artists )

Posted by: Mangø 11th February 2021, 03:01 PM

Someone needs to bring this thread to their attention!

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th February 2021, 04:29 PM

The database should have a credit attached to each release and then a separate one-to-many relationship for each individual act credited. That still leaves some decisions to be made - for example, do you include Simon and Garfunkel songs in Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's individual lists? - but its the logical way of organising it. Of course, there is still the issue of singles that get new acts added part way through the chart run.

Posted by: Colm 11th February 2021, 09:00 PM

I find that singles charts come up quickly but clicking on the album button does absolutely nothing.

Posted by: chartjack2 11th February 2021, 09:05 PM

Simon & Garfunkel are very much a distinct act, not the same as “Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel”
I would always say if there was an album credited to a specific act from which the single came from, then that act should be credited.
Controversially, I would count “Wings” as a distinct act from “Paul McCartney” but no one agrees with me haha

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th February 2021, 09:39 PM

That's where it gets difficult In the sense that some of McCartney's solo material was solo in the strictest sense, he and Wings are separate acts. However, to confuse matters, some Wings releases were credited to Paul McCartney & Wings. There is no simple rule elating to credits which means having to examine each case individually.

Posted by: kingofskiffle 11th February 2021, 09:45 PM

I see the weekly OCC CSV files sent to ChartsPlus and all of these are the same within that. As far as I understand it the OCC have one central database of titles, artists cat numbers, etc called the Product Database. This rests with Millwood Brown (or whatever name they now have) and contains everything issued since Feb 1994 and a good deal before (the caveat here is that ‘everything’ means everything sent to them to be chart eligible). When those details are entered, they go into a system that produces CSV files from a computer. A computer produced in 1994 (I would guess) that limits the character output. This situation is not unique by the way. Most systems are old systems using technology created at a point in time as database migration takes a while and for something like the OCC they can;t afford a database mess. So the files are CSV and so character limited (We don’t get ‘ marks for example). Those CSV files that we get have the exact same information that goes onto the website. It’s an automated process (as I understand it). Thus the CSV limits titles to a character count and thus so does the website.

As to the other point about missing details or errors... Some of that may be my fault. Long time ago the OCC contacted ChartsPlus and wanted to see how we where creating the magazine. I hold a copy of the database (it’s actually my own database) that is used for creating it (other copies exist) and so I created a copy to go to them. I should have locked it to stop database extraction because if you go back to the OCC charts for, say 1985, you will find the positions 76-100 without labels. Because my typed data did not have them at that point. I can;t prove they got the data from me, but I can state that that would explain the issues.

As to other points, if you want to navigate through weekly charts you just need to crack the system.

The main singles chart has this as a web URL

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20210129/7501/

The date is always of the form yyyymmdd and any date will provide the chart for that week. Thus if you want the chart for 1 Jan 1989, you type 19890101 in place of the date and the chart appears. I have a button in the database that finds the OCC Web chart for the chart I have on screen - it basically formats the date to yyyymmdd and adds the start and end of the link.

The histories section is very odd and buying a book is currently the best way to see the histories properly (The Graham Betts books being the most recent set.). The Polyhex website is good for singles history, but not for albums as he does not include the chart runs.

I’m always happy to help with queries of this sort if people do want a specific artists history - but the main OCC website should be significantly better than it is. (Oh and the way round the adverts? - adblocker and disabling cookies. When the screen comes up to say Agree or Disagree I always press Agree to Selected not agree to all. Limits the things it will load. )

Posted by: Bré 11th February 2021, 09:52 PM

If I were in charge of arbitrarily drawing these lines, I'd consider 'Wings' and 'Paul McCartney & Wings' to be pseudonyms of the same act, both separate from Paul on his own.

Posted by: Colm 12th February 2021, 09:19 AM

By the way - anyone that uses Python as a programming language get in contact. I have code that might be useful.

Posted by: Gambo 12th February 2021, 03:46 PM

Ah I was wondering where this 'No label' default nonsense for 76-100 in '83 to '91 came from! I never would've guessed it was you KOS....

The OCC site is SO much better than it was in terms of what it carries. But there remain significant gaps and inconsistencies. I can to a degree excuse or tolerate these, but the glitchiness of the site per se I do struggle with, as a generally impatient chap. I'm surprised to hear that users of it on Android phones report it works well; I find it's pretty cranky on mine for reasons already rehearsed in previous posts. Nothing more irritating than clicking on a link only to find a second or so later it's moved and it's registered your click on something else (quite possibly an ad). Knowing it's little foibles does help to avoid getting frustrated by them though. To know it may not be to love it, but certainly to accept and get the best from it.

Posted by: Bjork 14th February 2021, 10:40 AM

just an example of crappy the discography section is, was looking at the discography of Lil Tjay, who's about to have next week's #1
and if you check Lil Tjay you get 5 hits:
Pop Out (Polo G ft Lil Tjay) #41
FN # 69
Mood Swings (Pop Smoke ft Lil Tjay) #5
Losses #84
Move on #65

but then there is a separate different entry as Lil Tjay/Fivio Foreign/Smoke
and you get:
Zoo York (Lil Tjay/Fivio Foreign/Smoke) #65
I wonder for a sec who Smoke was, but off course the correct entry should be
Lil Tjay ft Five Foreign & Pop Smoke

but then I thought, didn't he also have a song with French Montana? So I went to
check French Montana's discography but there is no entry for anything with Lil Tjay
and then I noticed a separate different entry as French Montana/Blueface/Tjay which has:
Slide (French Montana/Bluefce/Tjay) #81

the song is not even of French Montana's main page, and Lil Tjay is wrongly credited as Tjay
and also the credit should be French Montana ft Blueface and Tjay

Posted by: kingofskiffle 14th February 2021, 11:36 AM

I suppose if nothing else its an argument to buy the chart books instead of use the website.... Of course, the website is free and the books are not and not everybody can afford too buy the books. Or store them (I have the full set fo the new Graham betts books and they are 1m in length on the shelf.)

Posted by: dan :: G 14th February 2021, 11:48 AM

its an issue of saving space again, why they never put “Ft” for any song with 3 plus artists regardless of the official credit,

and with “Friday” they don’t even have enough space to credit the whole of an artist name, so poor Hypeman is left out of his own duo.

Posted by: Suedehead2 14th February 2021, 03:32 PM

Thinking about this more - and, particularly, about how the OCC receives its information - we may be blaming the wrong people for some of the problems. The number of tracks, albums etc. registered with the OCC each week is far higher than the number of new entries each week. I assume that information is sent, electronically, by record companies etc. It may well be that the character-limited credit used by the OCC is input by the record companies (possibly with some general rules from the OCC) and the OCC simply transfers that credit to its database. The data used to compile an artist's full discography accurately may also be, at least in part, the responsibility of record companies although the OCC would still need a mechanism for combining releases by a single artist via more than one record company.

Interestingly, Fatboy Slim's discography does include two singles credited to Norman Cook so there is at least some attempt to combine these things correctly.

Posted by: Liam.k. 18th February 2021, 11:44 AM

Just discovered that Nelly Furtado's chart history has albums from Timbaland and James Morrison included!

https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10254/nelly-furtado/

Posted by: coi 18th February 2021, 11:47 AM

Timbaland and Nelly Furtado collaborated so many times it must have thought they were the same artist

Posted by: Bjork 18th February 2021, 12:02 PM

oh my and to make things worst
if you go to James Morrison singles, Broken Strings is listed as:
BROKEN STRINGS
JAMES MORRISON FT NELLY

so featuring Nelly (of Dilemma fame) instead of Nelly Furtado

Posted by: awardinary 18th February 2021, 12:11 PM

What the hell? This site is appalling as a reference guide. Can’t anything be done to update or revise these broken links and wrong data references? Is there not some way of being able to rebuild the website from the ground up, or even a group of chart enthusiasts to replicate the data from the OCC website and making a digital database with search facilities like Polyhex or everyhit?

Any app developers in this BuzzJack community that could make a basic app that could be funded on Kickstarter or something similar to help facilitate this?

Posted by: dan :: G 18th February 2021, 12:47 PM

there used to be one done by a chart enthusiast called chartstats, but the OCC gave them a cease and desist and this was even before they did their own site upgrade to include chart runs and histories.

Posted by: Liam.k. 18th February 2021, 12:50 PM

I miss the graphs they used to do.

Posted by: awardinary 18th February 2021, 01:25 PM

How come Polyhex is allowed to exist and maintain chart runs then?

I know everyhit.co.uk stopped updating over a decade ago but still a useful resource.

Posted by: Gambo 18th February 2021, 01:30 PM

The problem is the OCC are so insular and locked-down about their precious chart products that they probably wouldn't accept any assistance offered from independent outside people, however well-intentioned, IT-literate, professional and alive to the restrictions of copyright etc they may be. That said I suppose they did condescend to bring Graham Betts on board to do the legwork on their official chart books, but he was a seasoned author with strong credentials and already had access to a lot of their content, so perhaps that's why they made an exception for him in order to get their printed project to proper fruition. I honestly think from what I know of their operation that if somebody with suitable proven capability volunteered to fix all these issues with their website and database for free they would still ignore the offer. They seem so paranoid about misuse of their data that they'd rather prevent any external party from getting at it, even if it were with a legitimate view to improving its consistency, scope and presentation online.

Posted by: dan :: G 18th February 2021, 02:51 PM

I think Polyhex is safe because they don't actually have a chart archive like the OCC, and all they do is chart runs and histories (and only for the singles chart too).

Posted by: Suedehead2 18th February 2021, 08:29 PM

That was a great site. The pragmatic thing to do would have been to make him an offer for his database.



That's always been my assumption. Chartstats was built so that you could look at chart runs and individual charts. Polyhex only does chart runs.

Posted by: Bré 18th February 2021, 09:01 PM

Chartstats had many of the same issues as the OCC's own database - notably it did not even attempt to have features appearing alongside lead artist credits on artist pages (and for much of its existence all collaborations appeared as separate pages only although they did eventually change to have 'Artist X feat. Artist Y' songs also appear on the page for Artist X).

Posted by: awardinary 18th February 2021, 09:34 PM

It’s a real shame I didn’t see this chartstats website at the time, and even more so that they were told to cease and desist. I just can’t fathom why it’s such a protective database when there is clearly little effort in updating and maintaining historical records and no willingness to welcome assistance such as on Wikipedia.

It just isn’t fit for purpose in 2021, it might have been acceptable 10 years ago, but people’s standards and expectations have changed and that’s why the digital world is much more made for this time period with graphics and visuals etc. There’s been no visual update to the OCC website in as long as I’ve ever used it. This is frustrating thing for any chart music lover and yet again nobody’s views matter except their own.

Posted by: coi 18th February 2021, 10:39 PM

They have a lot more on their website now than they did before the 2015 update! I certainly prefer how the site is now to how it was before then.

Posted by: Suedehead2 18th February 2021, 11:15 PM

I think their revamped site went live within months of chartstats being closed down. They were clear (and understandably) aiming to maximise advertising revenue from their own site.

Posted by: Mack. 18th February 2021, 11:24 PM

It was a great in-depth website chart stats, much missed.

Posted by: jszmiles 19th February 2021, 08:42 AM

the best chart site was chartfreaks.com and http://www.lanet.lv/misc/charts/

Posted by: Robbie 19th February 2021, 10:31 AM

The Charts All Over The World page at your link was a good resource 10 or 15 years ago but it's long since been out of date, containing links to websites that closed many years ago. One of the sites linked to, worldcharts.co.uk, was also a good chart site. That site has also closed and in mysterious circumstances! The site owner was Paul Hart, he used to post at both here and UKMix plus Dotmusic back in the day, under the poster names Charter, Euromusic and poppet15 http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showuser=285 . He had ran the website since 2002, updating it weekly, then without any notice stopped updating it in November 2016. The registration for the site expired in May 2017 and as it wasn't renewed the site went offline. He also stopped posting at both BuzzJack and UKMix around the end of 2016 which makes me think something must have happened to him. He last visted BuzzJack (at least while logged in) on the day he last updated his website.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161207212752/http://www.worldcharts.co.uk/index.htm

Posted by: awardinary 19th February 2021, 11:05 AM

So is that it then, nobody will ever have the courage (if I can use that word) or ability (from the OCC’s interventions) to ever build a comparative chart website or app containing UK chart data and serve the needs and wishes of chart fans of the world. I just feel like this is a very manipulative situation and unfair that historical data cannot be made available in another format.

Wikipedia lists many different pages of chart facts such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_UK_Singles_Chart_number_ones?wprov=sfti1 or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-hit_wonders_on_the_UK_Singles_Chart?wprov=sfti1 for example.

https://polyhex.me.uk/uksingles/chartruns-uksingles.cfm seems to have found a loophole that allows them to continue to update and maintain UK chart runs and peak positions with a handy search facility for singles, but not for albums.

http://everyhit.com/ still exists despite not being updated since the start of 2011, but the advantage of this platform is that you can search for albums, EPs and even sheet music to find out what peaked where and when.

We really need a new platform for the modern era to allow users to browse, search and locate chart data with ease and that satisfies the OCC’s criteria of what is allowed and what is not.

Posted by: Robbie 19th February 2021, 11:26 AM

Polyhex and Everyhit don't replicate the weekly chart listings which is what the OCC seem to have found contentious about chartstats. It's not so much a loophole (as mentioned about polyhex) but more to do with how the information is presented.

I had thought that the OCC had purchased the chart database from the owner of chartstats and had used this as the source for their own pre-February 1994 data in the OCC Chart Archive database. Reading kingofskiffle's comments in a post he made earlier in this thread I'm now not so sure. The original source material is probably the same though, Record Mirror and Music Week for the pre February 1994 charts.

The owner of everyhit.com did intend to update his website a few years ago but has seemingly changed his mind. Replying to an email a poster from ukmix sent him a few years ago he did say he was too busy at present to update the site but his long term plan was to do so. It looks like it's not going to happen any time soon, if ever.

Posted by: kingofskiffle 19th February 2021, 12:03 PM

It's a resource and knowledge thing. if Person A has the data then Person A also needs to have the money to buy the web space and the knowledge to build the site that can be updated. I have the first bit, possibly the second (I have a website already) but absolutely no knowledge of building a database for search and keeping it updated.

Posted by: Liam.k. 5th March 2021, 06:11 PM

The site has been really bad for me this week. Full charts missing with the page saying "error retrieving".

Posted by: coi 5th March 2021, 06:13 PM

It's been fine most of the week but definitely noticed it a lot more today!

Posted by: LMLou 5th March 2021, 06:13 PM

Yeah I can't access top 100 albums for this week yet but I can see the top 100 singles

Posted by: Mart!n 5th March 2021, 06:17 PM

You can see the top 5 albums on the home page but when you click on the link, you cannot retrieved them does not make any sense whatsoever.

Posted by: zeus555 5th March 2021, 06:33 PM

Could the Site have been 'Hacked'? I can't find any of the Artist Pages, as well as the
various Charts not being there. Has the Site been wiped clean? Either by an Hacker,
or by The OCC's own Technology going wrong? I know very little about such things.

Posted by: Bré 5th March 2021, 07:06 PM

It's working fine for me, I think it's just periodically buggy (there was a time a few weeks ago where it wouldn't load any archived charts, entering any date just redirected to the current one, but the functionality went back to normal a little later on the same day).

Posted by: Suedehead2 5th March 2021, 08:34 PM

It wasn't working for me when I was writing my commentary this afternoon.

Posted by: Colm 5th March 2021, 08:51 PM

Down for me.

Posted by: Dot Branning 5th March 2021, 09:35 PM

It's been playing up for a couple of days now with error messages when you try to access weekly charts and artist pages.

Posted by: Rafael x 5th March 2021, 09:43 PM

I can't see both

Posted by: Mangø 5th March 2021, 10:40 PM

I haven't been able to view the Top 100 albums for a few days.

Posted by: Robbie 5th March 2021, 10:43 PM

Error retrieving this chart, please try again later.

The above error message seems to be on most chart pages.

Posted by: awardinary 5th March 2021, 10:56 PM

When are they going to have a complete rebuild from the ground up, that’s what’s needed.

Posted by: Tefo 6th March 2021, 01:23 PM

Yesterday for a moment I seriously thought that singles sales chart was discontinued. All previous charts were available but the new one wasn't showing up. And when I was viewing last week's sales chart there was no 'next' button available. And that was some 2-3 hours after the charts should be uploaded to the site.

Posted by: Dot Branning 7th March 2021, 08:51 PM

Same poor form tonight

Posted by: kingofskiffle 7th March 2021, 09:56 PM

I imagine it has either bene hacked, or the latest charts have corrupted (which is more likely) the historic aspects by being badly added. Or added, changed for some reason, and then corruption occurred. Clearly this is either something they do not know about or they don't work weekends and will fix Monday (Or by the end of the week depending on how big a mistake has occurred).

Posted by: Gambo 8th March 2021, 05:14 PM

Seemingly all back to normal now by the way folks - all the singles and albums charts I tried to view loaded up all right. Only a matter of time though before it starts to go glitchy again. It is a very unreliable site in terms of everyday operation. And then there's the fair criticisms about the layout and accessing of certain information. For example they still don't post a link on the singles to the video or overall streaming charts. I also find the archive very annoying in that the search you perform must be word-perfect; it's not dynamic enough to pick up likely typos or misspellings.

Posted by: Dot Branning 8th March 2021, 06:01 PM

Spoke too soon.

Posted by: My Random Music 14th March 2021, 10:32 PM

It's a terrible website. I keep my own spreadsheet for the charts, just using the website once a week to get the new information onto my spreadsheet is painful enough. Everyhit.com was a good site, but that had errors in it too for example none of Bruce Dickinson's solo hits are on there.

Posted by: kingofskiffle 14th March 2021, 10:51 PM

I'd recommend ChartsPlus. Not free, but significantly more accurate than the OCC Website (I am biased as I create the New Entry listings and much of the charts each week that are used in it from the OCC compiled CSV files that ChartsPlus licences from them).

http://www.ukchartsplus.co.uk

Posted by: spiceboy 14th March 2021, 11:25 PM

it is an awful page I hate it

Posted by: awardinary 30th March 2021, 12:59 PM

Looks like the Polyhex website is down. It’s been like this for over a day now. Not another priceless chart resource taken down from public use.

Posted by: dan::G 30th March 2021, 01:15 PM

There's still hope that it's nothing more than an error and the OCC haven't pulled it, for now. Would be a huge shame to lose it as the OCC's chart runs aren't copy and pasteable.

Posted by: kingofskiffle 30th March 2021, 02:18 PM

He wasn’t swear it was down. His ISP changed database settings and he will fix tonight. OCC have not said he has to take it down.

Posted by: awardinary 30th March 2021, 09:17 PM

Reassuringly, you’re both right, and the latest message coming from the website is this;

“Due to a technical issue, the chart runs are currently not working. Hopefully they'll be back soon!”

So it seems everything should be working as normal again soon.

Posted by: steve201 30th March 2021, 10:03 PM

Please god it’s a great page for old chart runs!

Posted by: Bré 30th March 2021, 11:05 PM

The OCC's issue with Chartstats was only the searchable archive of full charts - even after they 'took down' Chartstats the chart runs for individual songs were still accessible there (until the site went offline due to the domain expiring of course) so I don't think it's likely they'll ever go after Polyhex.

Posted by: Robbie 31st March 2021, 08:16 PM

The Polyhex chart run database is back online again.

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th June 2021, 05:55 PM

The OCC are doing a survey on their website. Has anyone done it yet? Does it give us a chance to mention some of the points in this thread?

Posted by: zeus555 11th June 2021, 06:28 PM

I've just done The OCC Survey.

1). They clearly plan to change some things. Either in their 'Rules', or on their Site. (Maybe both). Be it sooner or later.

2). It looks like, they have been losing money. Probably, (somehow), due to COVID19.

3). Some of the Questions are about cash. They ask, if Chart Fans, would be willing to Pay, to access their Site.

4). They List several things, and ask which of them would encourage Chart Fans, to pay for OCC Site Access.

5). Things like a faster Site, more Interviews, more Competitions - even 'A New Site', is given as an option.

6). They ask a lot of Questions, about how familiar, Chart Fans are with their Logos, and Chart Dates etc.

7). I got the impression, that The OCC has lost a lot of money, and they are trying, to find out, what we 'Chart Fans', will
be willing to pay for. So that the OCC can rake in more money. They also suggested a Chart Forum - to go on their Site.

8). They even plan, (hope), to Sell OCC and Chart, Merchandise! They showed several Photos of it. I forget if there was a Price next
to it. One of them, is a small replica, of those Number 1 Trophy's, that they give to the Artists, who get to No.1!

9). Each Question, gives you the chance, to choose something of your own. I told them, that I'd like their Site, to be more accurate.

Posted by: Suedehead2 11th June 2021, 06:38 PM

I think they need to sort out all the errors before considering charging people to use the site.

Posted by: PeteFromLeeds 11th June 2021, 06:44 PM

I've just done the survey - I have to say it did feel a bit like an interrogation!

Posted by: ben08 11th June 2021, 07:22 PM

Also included is this question.

What content would encourage you to take out a paid subscription?

Exclusive video content/artist interviews
Deeper exclusive expert chart analysis
Longer charts e.g. Top 200 charts
Artist chart ranking the total sales and streams of an artist against other artists
Monthly charts showing biggest sellers across a full month
More sales figures/streaming numbers
Market trend analysis and reports
Other (please state)

Hope they do more sales figures.

Posted by: Bjork 12th June 2021, 06:19 AM

does anyone have a link to the survey? cannot find it anywhere in their website

Posted by: Frenchie 12th June 2021, 06:33 AM

It’s on this page.

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/official-charts-needs-you-win-250-of-amazon-vouchers-for-telling-us-what-you-think__33346/

Posted by: Sour Candy 12th June 2021, 06:41 AM

Their identity crisis isn't surprising, considering that most of the FB comments are like "Olivia who? I only know Olivia Newton-John"

If they spend even a second analysing that, they are already going to the wrong direction.

Why not invest in facts and figures and easily shareable content like this:

Posted by: Bjork 12th June 2021, 07:19 AM

thanks for the link. done.
agree, billboard is great in presenting the data on social media.

Posted by: steve201 12th June 2021, 07:49 AM

Done there, I said I would buy the OCC vinyl holder 🙄, couldn’t help myself!

Posted by: Everton 12th June 2021, 10:09 AM

Official chart need rules old songs clock up chart and sort December mess out with Christmas songs

Posted by: JosephStyles 12th June 2021, 05:14 PM

To be fair, their Instagram comments are quite different to the FB ones - for example, https://www.instagram.com/p/CP_Myx4KKyt/! I think that's more of an indication of who actually uses Facebook...!

They've started posting graphics like that on Instagram as well, and I've definitely noticed them being a stronger Twitter presence than before over the past year, but I agree that Billboard's graphics like that are a great way of garnering the interest particularly of stan Twitter.

View this post on Instagram

Posted by: Sour Candy 12th June 2021, 05:40 PM

Oh that's nice! Don't follow them on IG, I should

Posted by: -Jay- 12th June 2021, 06:06 PM

Just completed the survey - but I clicked that I wouldn't want to sign in, so I guess that's the reason why I didn't get this question: "What content would encourage you to take out a paid subscription?"... oops!

I would certainly appreciate all of this though

Maybe I should take the survey again to make sure I get this question

If they really wanted to make some serious money, then they should open up their database. It could be quite an expensive subscription. Or if not complete access, the ability to select which artists you're most interested in seeing the sales figures of. A pipe dream

Posted by: No Sleeep 12th June 2021, 06:45 PM

The OCC website is a mess. The dates are all messed up and Americanised (mm/dd/yyyy) on some artists pages. Nelly Furtado’s discography is combined with Timbaland and James Morrison! So unprofessional looking

Posted by: GTH 12th June 2021, 07:36 PM

That would be ideal. As you say, I can't see them opening up the full database without a serious cost attached. I don't imagine most people would care about the whole thing though and would just look a their fave acts, as they could put a limit on how many songs/discographies can be accessed per month, or when they are doing these top 10/20/40 lists, just provide sales for all items rather than a select few to those that subscribe.

I am glad they are looking at shaking things up. Main thing for me is getting these ads in order as they are currently very disruptive to the experience when looking at anything on a mobile device.

Posted by: chartjack2 12th June 2021, 08:01 PM

Ideally they would post historical sales data for each weekly chart post 1994, no reason why they couldn’t (aside from commercial ones)

Posted by: spiceboy 18th June 2021, 07:09 AM

I mean if they want to charge people they need to open all sales information up. Select which artist you’re interested in and get their full up to date sales information.

Posted by: Dot Branning 18th June 2021, 10:33 AM

Historical weekly sales data would be a huge bonus.

Also a small niggle but when there is more than one credited artist on a single, it links back to a page specifically created for that e.g. there is a Beyonce & Shakira artist page with only Beautiful Liar listed. Could they not format it so clicking each artists name links back to their individual artist page with the rest of their chart history included.

Posted by: My Random Music 20th June 2021, 06:29 PM

I can't imagine many people would be willing to pay for a subscription. There is a lack of interest in the charts these days from the general public. Personally speaking I wouldn't be willing to subscribe because I keep my own chart data which I add to each week so I only really use the site to check the current Top 40. If they charged for access to the current Top 40 then more people would lose interest.

Posted by: Bré 20th June 2021, 06:35 PM

I'm pretty sure paid subscription features would not be aimed at 'the general public'

I don't think they'd ever restrict access to the main charts, at most they might put up a paywall for some of the more niche charts or something (similar to what Billboard does currently).

Posted by: fiesta 20th June 2021, 06:57 PM

Paid subscriptions might eradicate the need for those irritating pop-up ads!

Posted by: My Random Music 20th June 2021, 07:02 PM

I just can't see there being demand for it. I don't know anybody who still follows the charts and some people I know are big music fanatics who would have done once upon a time. I don't know whether Americans have the same attitude towards their chart but it helps that America has a much bigger population than the UK.

Posted by: Gambo 21st June 2021, 03:45 PM

Ha-haa; classic OCC website - just tried entering the link to their survey and it returned a message thanking me for my interest but it's now closed. Yet the Ts and Cs below state that the latest one can enter the competition to win Amazon vouchers (which can presumably only be entered by completing their survey) is 9am Tuesday 29th June, over a week hence!

It's this very kind of glitchiness and conflicting messaging that's p*ssing most people off about their site (before we get into the deeper debates about how they present and manage their data, errors and inconsistencies in reportage and so on).

Posted by: ben08 21st June 2021, 05:02 PM

But the Terms & Conditions also state,

4. Official Charts Company reserves the right to cancel or amend the Competition or these Terms at any time without prior notice.

The survey quota has already been reached. Was it set at 500 or 1,000?

Posted by: Gambo 23rd June 2021, 11:56 AM

Then if that is indeed the case they should remove the link if they don't want any further responses. Again, poor website management and lack of consistent communication. Why waste people's time trying to complete it if it's no longer available? Just thank those who've participated and take it down.

I am not too fussed that I didn't get to air my views as I daresay all my comments will've been fed back by other disgruntled users who did manage to complete the survey before it was locked-down. But I would be surprised if they took any of the more complex ideas on board. I don't think they have either time or inclination to really drill down into the problems and while we're obviously keen to engage in the hope of improving their data management etc, I don't think that's what they are really after from this. If we're lucky, we might see some minor tinkering which could improve the efficiency or appearance of the site itself.

Posted by: awardinary 1st February 2022, 09:01 AM

Just a random thought, but has anyone ever purchased any merchandise from the OCC online shop?

https://shop.officialcharts.com/

There’s not a great selection if I am honest, but I imagine that wouldn’t stop the most die hard fans. So does this include you?

Posted by: Dj Cheeky Magpie 1st February 2022, 09:34 AM

Had mug and key ring from shop

Posted by: kingofskiffle 1st February 2022, 04:17 PM

Nope. I did show the valentines mug to my wife who suggested she knew where she would put it if I where to buy it for her….

I like the idea of them having a shop but I’d rather they did data requests… i.e. put something together where you could by a size of chart (up to a length they specific) and a time period and get the CSV files or the data that way. It could be relatively automated as well so they wouldn’t need to monitor it.

Posted by: ben08 1st February 2022, 04:25 PM

I would like to be able to search the OCC database to find the sales for a specific artist (even willing to pay!).

But I know its not going to happen.

Posted by: AcerBen 1st February 2022, 05:27 PM

I'd actually consider getting one of those expensive Number 1 awards if you could choose the Number 1, rather than it being one by The Wanted.

Posted by: ___∆___ 1st February 2022, 08:34 PM

I’ve settled to the keyring until the finally allow other artists for award other than The Wanted

Posted by: Gambo 2nd February 2022, 02:24 PM

You mean to tell me there is actually such a thing as an Official Charts Company MUG and KEYRING??!!! Sales I'd imagine would be pretty poor - almost as low as digital downloads nowadays - though the difference between digital music consumption and buying cheap naff tat is that they can't artificially bolster the true sales figures by adding in streaming-equivalent 'sales'!!

Posted by: Dj Cheeky Magpie 2nd February 2022, 06:16 PM

I talk official chart shop team few week go hope bring load items to store like tee and jumpers

Posted by: awardinary 26th June 2022, 05:35 PM

I'm trying to retrieve chart data from July 2020 to November 2020 to complete a list of omissions from the Now volume of the time but the data just isn't pulling through, it's been giving me an error for a while now. Is anyone else getting this when they search these dates for singles?

Posted by: RunningUpThatDot 26th June 2022, 05:42 PM

It's been incredibly slow and glitchy over the past couple of weeks

Posted by: -Jay- 26th June 2022, 06:37 PM

This website is barely fit for purpose. Hate!

Has anyone noticed that’s there been a bit of a shift towards them writing random news articles that have absolutely nothing to do with the charts? I feel like that’s giving the website a bit of an identity crisis.

Posted by: Afraid Dot Feel 26th June 2022, 06:41 PM

I don’t really use it for the news articles although the updated sales figures are always nice.

If only the site wouldn’t struggle to load half the time that would be something. Irritating when you just want to quickly check a songs peak or something and you get an error message.

Posted by: awardinary 26th June 2022, 06:58 PM

Just look at some of the comments from today alone (scroll down);

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/20200626/7501/

Posted by: GTH 27th June 2022, 06:45 AM

It has definitely gotten much worse lately. Has been bad for years but their archive section is just not working at all right now.

Posted by: adrianreavill83 27th June 2022, 07:53 AM

I ran into this problem on that day as well.

Posted by: Dj Cheeky Magpie 8th July 2022, 06:18 AM

Website not work at all at moment keep say server error

Posted by: Y'all Starlight 8th July 2022, 07:19 AM

Everything works for me on the website