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Posted by: AcerBen 14th August 2014, 08:51 PM

Lee Thompson (formerly Head of Music at The Box and BT Vision) has written a great article on Record of the Day, which brings up some really interesting points about music industry politics at the moment between record labels, music outlets and radio.

http://www.recordoftheday.com/news-and-press/lee-thompson-examines-how-on-air-on-stream-could-change-the-official-chart

Posted by: M¤th 14th August 2014, 09:25 PM

Very interesting article, indeed! 'Giant In My Head' though? Umm...

Posted by: steve201 14th August 2014, 09:45 PM

Great wee article - the second last paragraph sums it up perfectly on held back releases - 'this is crazy'!!

Posted by: Bradders 16th August 2014, 08:54 AM

Nowhere to be seen before release?? Both Am I Wrong and Rude were Top 30 on pre-order at the time of their release.

Why don't people research before they write an article?!

Posted by: Eric_Blob 16th August 2014, 09:20 AM

I think he's saying Rude and Am I Wrong didn't have any adverts or any promotion done by iTunes, due to some rivalry between Apple and Spotify meaning iTunes gets pissed off when a song is released to Spotify early. That's what I got from the article, but it's difficult to get my head around tbh.

Posted by: popchartfreak 16th August 2014, 09:25 AM

interesting article. Itunes quite rightly protecting sales, so they aren't the villain, they are the victim of selfish grappling of radio and streaming services who want to carry on dictating what form the charts take through exclusives that itunes can't sell.

Radio 1's mandated role is to promote new music, especially new music that appeals to it's 18 to 30 demographic. They are failing to do that in a big way by it's continued hyping of tracks for weeks in advance, by the time they are released no-one cares enough to buy them (except for the mega hits) and this instant number 1 then drop, and unchanging lists of records just shuffling positions is hardly pushing and promoting new records. Jameela (who Ive criticised in the past) is doing the best she can with a tedious rundown, but the frustration (albeit good-natured) in her comments is blatantly obvious that everyone knows it's boring.

Radio 1 has the power to change all that, make the charts exciting again, and actually let records grow and peak naturally. More importantly, they would actually be fulfilling their mandate by letting new artists get a chance of having a chart appearance. They need to be available simultaneously on all formats. On air on sale was the music industry norm for decades, it needs to be the norm again. I'm still against streaming, I won't list again all the reasons, but the impact on the singles chart is obvious: it's slowed down the chart, reduced new entries and allowed what used to be long-running radio hits to become long-running chart-hits. I don't believe that new people are discovering these tracks, I believe it's the same people re-playing them. Research from Spotify please to prove this is not the case.....

Posted by: Eric_Blob 16th August 2014, 10:39 AM

I've said for a while that Radio 1 need to do something about the chart show (this was even before streaming was added). The chart is way too slow, and full of songs that people outside Radio 1's demographic like. They should stop playing songs like Happy now, there's literally no point, and I say this as someone who likes the song, but it's really not necessary anymore. They could play a different song instead, one that might not make the top 40 but is actually popular with the audience they're trying to target...

When Radio 1 did their count-down of the best-selling digital songs recently, nearly every single one of them was adult contemporary. Nearly every one. There were a few that weren't (e.g. Pass Out, Earthquake, What's My Name?), but for the most part, it became clear to me that you're NOT going to get a massive chart hit if you don't appeal to the over 30's, so should Radio 1 really be placing such a focus on the chart in the first place? I think there are other methods they could use to find songs to play, although I am aware that they've got major record labels sending them songs every week, so no matter what happens those'll probably make up the majority of their playlists.

Posted by: girl_from_oz 16th August 2014, 12:08 PM

It said Apple doesn't like airplay/streaming and doesn't promote songs which are out beforehand, but in the US this seems to happen all the time so do songs come out straight on itunes in the US same time as airplay/spotify or are there a hell of a lot of singles not promoted on itunes

Posted by: popchartfreak 16th August 2014, 01:06 PM

Radio 1 could fix the chart show in a flash by reverting back to what it used to do in the 60's and early 70's (when it was set up to be the YOUTH station): The first half of the show should be exciting newly-RELEASED big-name tracks (as in available to buy) and all records that are new entries, or reaching a new chart peak, between 21 and 75 (or 100 if there's not enough of them), the second half should be the full Top 20. Frankly, back in the day, as soon as a record had a chart run and left the 20 it didn't get played again until it was old enough to qualify as an occasional "golden oldie". This kept the charts fresh and the music scene exciting.

Posted by: Therm• 16th August 2014, 05:15 PM

I kinda agree with you there popchartfreak. If only the OCC would let the BBC access the whole top 100 (or at least 75), it would make the chart a more interesting listen. New entries, re-entries from years ago, and climbers would be played. So from this week's top 100 you'd have:

#90 Blue Swede - Hooked On A Feeling
#80 Netsky ft Beth Ditto - Running Low
#72 5 Seconds of Summer - Amnesia
#71 Slipknot - The Negative One
#69 Sam Smith - I'm Not the Only One
#68 Drake - 0 To 100 / The Catch Up
#50 Clean Bandit ft Stylo G - Come Over

Then you'd play the top 40 as normal, excluding songs that have been in the charts for the longest in the 21 - 40 section (so Let It Go, Happy, Rather Be, Hideaway, Fancy, and either two of Only Love Can Hurt Like This/I Could Never Let You Down/Wiggle/Dangerous Love)

Posted by: Suedehead2 16th August 2014, 05:25 PM

I don't think they should stop playing the long-runners permanently. However, they could start playing them on alternate weeks. I would assume that the BBC would be able to use the whole top 75 if they were prepared to pay enough for it.

Posted by: T Boy 16th August 2014, 05:44 PM

I just hate that it's so slow and the play every song when it's been there for a year and yet some flash in the pan minor hits from 10 years ago never got played because they were messing with the format. Can't change the past but poor Anastacia's last top 40 entry was never played on the chart despite getting to 21.

Posted by: popchartfreak 16th August 2014, 09:44 PM

I like the sound of that, and a chart line-up that includes a 1974 bit of fun, with Beth Ditto, and Slipknot, and Drake, is both varied and interesting, and dare I say it, exciting!