Before XF downloads didn't count in the chart (and weren't that popular anyway) so you could release a single in December *after* the album and still be in with a chance of entering at the top. Of course songs that were actually about Christmas tended to be one-offs.

There's 2 more streaming services starting January too - it's only a matter of time before this info is included.

 

I doubt streaming will ever be included in the official chart and personally, I would never want it to be.

Before XF downloads didn't count in the chart (and weren't that popular anyway) so you could release a single in December *after* the album and still be in with a chance of entering at the top. Of course songs that were actually about Christmas tended to be one-offs.

 

So Robbie Williams sold 110k in 2001 of Something Stupid from the Swing album which was selling millions of copies as well in album format!

I doubt streaming will ever be included in the official chart and personally, I would never want it to be.

 

I can't see how it'd work but singles sales have been worryingly low in the 2nd half of this yr. Then again some of the biggest sellers in yrs were at the start of this yr & we have 5 million sellers this yr the most in 15 yrs so maybe we are going over board?!

It looks like Sam Bailey will have only one week at number one then. Does anyone think Dermot was chattin sh1t when he said 1 million people voted for her in the final?

I can't see how it'd work but singles sales have been worryingly low in the 2nd half of this yr. Then again some of the biggest sellers in yrs were at the start of this yr & we have 5 million sellers this yr the most in 15 yrs so maybe we are going over board?!

 

They've still been good. We're just used to year-on-year increases. The sales haven't been worryingly low imo, especially with a lack of releases, which normally happens in the run up to Christmas.

 

If they never changed the chart with the really bad sales in 2003-2005, I highly doubt they will change it while we're having good sales. :)

It looks like Sam Bailey will have only one week at number one then. Does anyone think Dermot was chattin sh1t when he said 1 million people voted for her in the final?

 

He said 1 million votes so that could mean 250k people voted 4 times each.

And 1 million can be easily rounded up from, say 800,000, or something

They've still been good. We're just used to year-on-year increases. The sales haven't been worryingly low imo, especially with a lack of releases, which normally happens in the run up to Christmas.

 

If they never changed the chart with the really bad sales in 2003-2005, I highly doubt they will change it while we're having good sales. :)

 

They did change the chart... they started including downloads. Streaming wasn't really a 'thing' then.

 

Sales in themselves might not be that bad, but it's the trend that's worrying - 10-15% down within a year is a pretty alarming rate. If that was just a one-off then that would be fine, but the worry is if that rate of decline continues, in which case sales would be slumping to a very worrying place within about 5 years, and then there certainly would be a strong case to start including streaming if that's seen as more representative.

And 1 million can be easily rounded up from, say 800,000, or something

 

Well no. He said over a million votes so...

They did change the chart... they started including downloads. Streaming wasn't really a 'thing' then.

 

Sales in themselves might not be that bad, but it's the trend that's worrying - 10-15% down within a year is a pretty alarming rate. If that was just a one-off then that would be fine, but the worry is if that rate of decline continues, in which case sales would be slumping to a very worrying place within about 5 years, and then there certainly would be a strong case to start including streaming if that's seen as more representative.

But, adding downloads made sense, as they are still sales. Streams aren't. Combining the two creates a mess like the Billboard charts.

 

I'd only want streaming to be added if sales become so low that there's no other option.

 

Who knows what will happen in the next couple of years, though.

 

Well no. He said over a million votes so...

Oh. I probably missed when Dermot said that.

 

Still, 1 million isn't a lot considering past winners have received 4-5 times that amount.

Edited December 21, 201312 yr by n4yr

I don't see how that's possible. Hadn't it sold 29k up to Wednesday night? I'd put it at closer to 45k this week, so just shy of 100k overall. For a brand new Christmas song, I think that's very impressive for 3 weeks of sales. It should easily shift another 10-15k next week before it disappears for this year too.

It will be interesting to see whether it comes back in any meaningful way next year. This is the first really big new Christmas song of the download era to be able to put this to the test.

Good to see Kelly Clarkson finally top40. Its a really good Christmas song!!

I doubt streaming will ever be included in the official chart and personally, I would never want it to be.

 

Forever is a long time. If we get to a stage where most people choose to stream everything - which is already happening in Scandinavia - there is no way the official chart will be able to ignore streaming. As mobile internet gets even faster and even cheaper it's going to become a more attractive option.

Did he mean a million votes over the whole series? That would have a lot of the same people voting every week, presumably.

I don't think there's gonna be any major surprises for the Xmas #1, but the New Year #1???

I doubt streaming will ever be included in the official chart and personally, I would never want it to be.

 

Same. It doesn't make any sense to include it in a sales chart. This isn't the Hot 100, it's a sales chart, so you shouldn't add random components in.

 

The OCC already do a streaming chart, so if sales get really low and streaming gets really high, I guess they will probably just say the streaming chart is now the official chart. They shouldn't add streaming to the current official chart (if that makes sense).

Forever is a long time. If we get to a stage where most people choose to stream everything - which is already happening in Scandinavia - there is no way the official chart will be able to ignore streaming. As mobile internet gets even faster and even cheaper it's going to become a more attractive option.

 

Yes. A bit off-topic but in Sweden iTunes refuses to be part of the official chart because Spotify dominates so much and is included.

 

Streaming will take over, it makes life and listening to new music so easy. It might not 100% REPLACE downloads but at some point, there'll be a whole new generation who doesn't download songs at all any more.

Edited December 21, 201312 yr by SKOB

What's going to stop obvious chart-rigging by people just clicking the same song stream over and over again? Surely anyone could get a number 1 by just setting up a computer script that clicks the mouse button on the song every three minutes?

it's possible to count one person listening to a song multiple times once i believe.