Last week Coldplay released their 'festive' track "Christmas Lights" at approx 8pm (GMT) on Wednesday 1st December - and sold 19,669 downloads within 76 hours to debut on the UK Top 75 at a very respectable #18.

This, despite that there wasn't weeks and weeks of radio play and "hyped" up promotion, unlike many singles released of late.

 

Personally i wish more artists would release singles more or less the same time they debut on radio/TV - wouldn't this help prevent some of the "illegal downloading"?

 

When I hear or see a song I like then it would be nice to be able to buy it as soon as, rather than having to wait for anything between 6 & 8 weeks before it's released on iTunes, by which time I've often become bored with it, or completely forgotten about the song.

 

Surely it's time for the record companies to start helping themselves more with the modern technology - embrace it, as i don't think it's going away anytime soon...

:D

Edited December 9, 201014 yr by seanster

Absolutely, the holding back of releases to manipulate their peak position is ridiculous!

 

Furthermore, holding songs back actually detracts from overall sales in almost all cases due to illegal downloading (although there could be an argument that holding a song back may allow it to get top 10 on iTunes (and get a resultant boost from that which may in fact last a number of days, or even weeks) whereas if it hadn't been held back it may linger in the top 11-20 for a week before plummeting) and in the current economic climate, and the position the music industry finds itself in with declining album sales, etc, it would actually make sense to release the song immediately to ensure the maximum amount of legal, paid for, sales.

 

For global artists this isn't so much of a problem as the revenue they receive from singles in the UK will be miniscule as a % of their overall revenue. However for UK only artists, surely this HAS to be the way forward.

I would add that everytime I hear a song that I like and it isn’t available on iTunes, I always illegally download it. Whether that be from a torrent or a rip from YouTube, its easy to do and I bet there’s hundreds of thousands of similar cases every single week.

I would add that everytime I hear a song that I like and it isn’t available on iTunes, I always illegally download it. Whether that be from a torrent or a rip from YouTube, its easy to do and I bet there’s hundreds of thousands of similar cases every single week.

 

Agree 100%

Difference was though, the Coldplay "World Exclusive Premier" or whatever, was hyped up by Radio 1. Not everyone will get that sort of promotion and hype upon their debut releases...

As much as I hate the manipulation of chart positions - especially when it allows the likes of Westlife and JLS to fart their way to #1 with a load of twaffle - I'm not sure that this is really the best plan forward. On one hand it would probably make the charts more representative but on the other hand it would literally kill off the presence of certain kinds of acts in the charts completely (when they're already on their last legs now), at least for the forseeable future, and as Jonjo touched on it would also make it much harder for debut acts to get higher in the charts (as they would always have to climb their way up slowly while more established acts would easily debut in the top 10/20) - all the while surely making it even easier for the likes of JLS to hit #1 due to their massive fanbase who would buy it regardless of how little airplay it got, and the fact that the sales bar to reach #1 would probably be lower (though overall sales would definitely be higher).

 

So while I'm not keen on the current way the UK charts work, I'm not sure I'd be a fan of this either... :(

Edited December 9, 201014 yr by superbossanova

As much as I hate the manipulation of chart positions - especially when it allows the likes of Westlife and JLS to fart their way to #1 with a load of twaffle - I'm not sure that this is really the best plan forward. On one hand it would probably make the charts more representative but on the other hand it would literally kill off the presence of certain kinds of acts in the charts completely (when they're already on their last legs now), at least for the forseeable future, and as Jonjo touched on it would also make it much harder for debut acts to get higher in the charts (as they would always have to climb their way up slowly while more established acts would easily debut in the top 10/20) - all the while surely making it even easier for the likes of JLS to hit #1 due to their massive fanbase who would buy it regardless of how little airplay it got, and the fact that the sales bar to reach #1 would probably be lower (though overall sales would definitely be higher).

 

So while I'm not keen on the current way the UK charts work, I'm not sure I'd be a fan of this either... :(

I'm sure this was discussed before, that neither extreme is particularly attractive, but a half-way house - whereby a song would have to be released within 2 weeks of premiering on radio, otherwise it would be ineligible to chart for a defined period - might work.

 

The definition of premiering on radio could be as simple as e.g. Achieving 100 plays in total for a week using a list of monitored radio stations (even the same list currently used to compile the radio airplay charts). If the song was not released by that point, then when it did actually get a release it would be chart ineligible indefinitely or for e.g. a period of 2 weeks.

I think some artists need the hype and demand to become an established artist.

Getting that Top 10 début increases your exposure to get new fans, rather than lingering Top 20/30 for a while.

 

However, I do like idea of releasing songs straight away because I'm usually over it by the time release comes around.

We'd end up with a chart with similar runs to that of the U.S.

Yes, definitely.

 

It's sort of irritated me how many artists in the last two years have released hits across Europe/USA/Australia - even Ireland whilst the UK have to wait several weeks before the same track is released here.

sure i agree. . . When you hear a song and u liked it and u cant find it illegally or on utube, u will buy it / download it immediately. . . !

Back in the old days (I sound so old!) But I really mean before 1990 (ish) More songs climbed the charts, if you remember before downloads were included in the chart, for about 15 years it was unusual if more than 3 songs climbed, and a song climbing to number 1 was almost unheard of!

 

This is because there was less promotion of songs before their release, the way I see it - Debut the song on radio/TV, release it anytime between straight after to no later than the following day on downloads, the following Monday release it on physical format. It would make the chart more interesting, and see acts actually have to EARN their spots in the chart, would also increase sales figures, the endless promotion was another reason for sales decline.

I'd love it if songs were made available immediately. Hate waiting for weeks.

I would add that everytime I hear a song that I like and it isn’t available on iTunes, I always illegally download it. Whether that be from a torrent or a rip from YouTube, its easy to do and I bet there’s hundreds of thousands of similar cases every single week.

 

*millions.

 

I agree, people get bored of a song listening to it and seeing it on TV for weeks and weeks and not being able to download it, i think 1/2/3..4MAX is okay, but longer then that i dont think its a good idea.

I think they should be released at the midnight after it's first play.