Posted April 25, 201213 yr ...years after they've become available on download? One obvious explanation is use in adverts / 'talent' shows, but that doesn't explain why the other 99.9% keep selling...
April 25, 201213 yr Because people want them on their iPods and other music devices, a lot of people might only have just been introduced to an older song so it's good that older sogs are still available to buy!
April 25, 201213 yr Because they are hammered by radio, TV countdowns and the like. A 'classic' will always sell, purely because it gets constant exposure. :D Edited April 25, 201213 yr by Juranamo
April 25, 201213 yr Author Why wouldn't they? Because people don't remember them? Since I've been converting my old vinyls, I've come across tons of songs that I don't remember *at all*. Yes, the more popular ones still get dug up on radio, but you'd think that'd still be frequent enough to eventually exhaust the pool of people who haven't already got them. As for sales to new people, how many of the younger people here would actually *buy* a random oldie from the radio?
April 25, 201213 yr The answer to this lies in the younger generation where they are beginning to search these tracks out, they are just gaining a new audience to the tracks that don't own the original material and its not available as a physical other than downloading the track, that's one, another reason its better sound quality.
April 25, 201213 yr Some songs have enough lasting appeal to still sell now, simple. Obviously TV appearances/price cuts would be the only way to get them selling massively again but they still sell in small amounts weekly. Its just another case of 'who's still buying this?!', there are 60 million people in the UK, not all of them will know of a 'classic's' existence and there are more and more that will come around to them every day. But some old songs are forgotten (just look at the forgotten top 10 hits thread/Itunes top 1000), they don't have the lasting appeal that certain songs have and as a result, almost stop selling Edited April 25, 201213 yr by C.W
April 25, 201213 yr A good couple of reasons as to why 'older' songs keep selling usually are down to the endless amount of compilation cds that are released and have those songs on (hits of the 80's, party songs, american anthems), the reduction price on i-tunes and the fact that radio stations like 'heart fm, radio 2 and magic playing them constantly and the fact the reality shows murder the songs to death lol Another one i realised is by artists who sample the tracks for their songs. Flo Rida and Dizzee Rascal come to mind. I dont think it harms the charts. I like the idea that an artist who released a song 20 years ago can have their song re-enter the chart and possibly give them the confidence to tour or possibly do a new album. Its a win win
April 25, 201213 yr Yep, people used to look out old songs back in the day, it's just they were very hard to get on 7" or whatever. So, we used to borrow compilations and take our pick of the old songs on there making new compilations on tape. It's not really any different, just that iTunes makes it much easier than it used to be so it transfers into sales. The appearances in the chart are mainly based on adverts / talent shows / appearances on films on TV. But this used to happen all the time in the late 80s / early 90s - Levi's had a run of no.1 singles from oldies (until Marc Bolan & T-Rex inexplicably and spectacularly bucked the trend) and I remember Echo and the Bunnymen, Berlin and Bill Medley / Jennifer Warnes all being re-released to tie in with the TV premieres of 'The Lost Boys', 'Top Gun' and 'Dirty Dancing' respectively.
April 27, 201213 yr Because 60s-90s music is still very popular. Some of the younger generation are keen to discover music from the past if they get bored of the current chart music.
April 28, 201213 yr Author Because 60s-90s music is still very popular. Some of the younger generation are keen to discover music from the past if they get bored of the current chart music. And the older generation are very keen to *escape* the current chart music? :P
April 28, 201213 yr Stations like Heart FM are always playing the same songs from previous decades, so those will always constantly be in the top 1000 until Heart stops playing them. Another one I noticed is that when a big hit happens, other songs with the same/similar titles as it sell more aswell.
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