This first(?) became an issue in the 90's when groups like Oasis started releasing multiple CD's to try & articifially hype their chart positions - it was tackled then by the OCC disallowing more than 3 versions from contributing to a song's chart position.

 

Unfortunately this practice seems to be returning, with (mostly) boyband's record companies abusing the chart rules by releasing many versions of the same song.

 

Should this issue be re-examined iro the download format?

 

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IMO no more than 3 download versions should be allowed to contribute to a chart position (and no more than 2 physical formats, though nowadays they are pretty irrelevant anyway).

To answer the question, no. Whilst it's a shame that boybands are abusing it and taking advantages of girls who will buy all the multiple versions, I don't think it would be fair to only allow 3 download versions of a song to contribute to the position.

 

Let's take, for example, Sam Smith's 'Money On My Mind'. There is, of course, the single version which is getting most of the sales. There's also an identical version of it on the EP, as well as remixes from MK, Le Youth and salute. Which equals a total of 5 versions. So any hardcore Sam Smith fans could download the song five times to give it five sales in the charts. But most people won't be doing this. And it would be unfair to take off the sales of two of the remixes, even though they're probably only selling in very small amounts.

I'd say yes - there should be a limit on the number of versions that count, be it 3 or 4 or whatever. However, identical versions, such as a "single" version and a track from an EP or an album should be regarded as one.

To answer the question, no. Whilst it's a shame that boybands are abusing it and taking advantages of girls who will buy all the multiple versions, I don't think it would be fair to only allow 3 download versions of a song to contribute to the position.

 

Let's take, for example, Sam Smith's 'Money On My Mind'. There is, of course, the single version which is getting most of the sales. There's also an identical version of it on the EP, as well as remixes from MK, Le Youth and salute. Which equals a total of 5 versions. So any hardcore Sam Smith fans could download the song five times to give it five sales in the charts.

 

But they'd only need to download it once, as the bundle, to get all four versions.

 

But most people won't be doing this. And it would be unfair to take off the sales of two of the remixes, even though they're probably only selling in very small amounts.

 

Why would it be unfair?

 

 

So what if there are multiple versions, I'd say rather remixes? There are just very very few examples where multiple versions ruined the chart, say added so many sales that a song charted at number 1 because of too many versions.

 

I'd say yes - there should be a limit on the number of versions that count, be it 3 or 4 or whatever. However, identical versions, such as a "single" version and a track from an EP or an album should be regarded as one.

 

Not everytime but mostly if you buy the single version of a song, the album version won't be available on iTunes, it means if you check the album, it will show as a bought item.

I would say yes too. The Vamps are one of the worst offenders at the moment. It really clutters up the chart and fans can feel pressured into buying every version with encouragement from the band themselves tweeting all the time to make sure they buy every different version. I would limit it to 3 versions maximum.

I would say yes too. The Vamps are one of the worst offenders at the moment. It really clutters up the chart and fans can feel pressured into buying every version with encouragement from the band themselves tweeting all the time to make sure they buy every different version. I would limit it to 3 versions maximum.

 

Well it only clutters up the iTunes chart, surely.

Well it only clutters up the iTunes chart, surely.

yep and also for a day or two not more, afterwards all the special versions disappear. Plus The Vamps didn't gain that much sales of those multiple versions imo, in fact they never had a number 1 song yet, so it's not a "danger" imo.

I'd say yes - there should be a limit on the number of versions that count, be it 3 or 4 or whatever. However, identical versions, such as a "single" version and a track from an EP or an album should be regarded as one.

 

Good point - identical versions should count as one, as only the most obsessive fans would buy *exactly* the same thing several times. :wacko:

I agree with Thermometer in the sense that when an artist releases a remix EP, any fan is still able to buy each song individually if they want to help the chart position. It's something that's happened for many years I'm sure, but is just more prominent with artists like The Vamps. It doesn't benefit them beyond the first week, where it bumps the songs up a couple of places at best (both songs would've been top 5 hits regardless of these other versions), and it helped Can We Dance get playlisted by Radio 1 as it was the midweek #1, so it actually worked wonders for them in terms of getting some long-term support.

It's not just boy-bands who do that. Infact, there's lots of "normal" song which have a huge amount of versions, but most of them don't sell very much, so people don't notice. It seems like it's only boy bands who can get lots of versions high on iTunes since they have a fanbase that might actually download each of them separately. But I don't think it's fair to change the chart rules just because of that. There's 15 different versions of Right Now by Rihanna on iTunes, but nobody was complaining about that.

 

Plus, if people did want to multi-buy to help a chart position, it would still be possible even if the number of versions was limited to a few, because they could still put out lots of the same version.

 

Plus, what counts as a different version? Does an acoustic version, live version, radio edit, extended mix, album version, etc. count?

Edited February 16, 201411 yr by Eric_Blob

I think being able to sell a lot of different versions of the same song is pretty much a sign of popularity, so if people are willing to download the same thing over and over the charts should reflect that. It affects the chart for a total of one week and no one aside from the core fanbase buys any of the additional versions.

This first(?) became an issue in the 90's when groups like Oasis started releasing multiple CD's to try & articifially hype their chart positions

I know this isn't really important to the debate at all but Oasis only released one version of their CD singles as far as I can recall. They did tend to release on every format though, CD - 7" - 12" - cassingle... I mention it solely because they were actually one of the few acts around the mid 90s to not release multiple versions of a CD single.

 

It did used to be a marketing tool, I remember virtually all dance singles having at least two versions available from the early 90s onwards and even your normal pop singles would often have one CD with b-sides and one with remixes, even established stars like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Kylie, Mariah Carey, Pet Shop Boys, Jamiroquai, Blur, Pulp etc used to use it.

I think being able to sell a lot of different versions of the same song is pretty much a sign of popularity, so if people are willing to download the same thing over and over the charts should reflect that. It affects the chart for a total of one week and no one aside from the core fanbase buys any of the additional versions.

 

But where is the line between popularity and obsession?

The charts are a reflection of what people are buying and if one person decides to spend their money buying multi versions of a track then they should all be counted.

 

This issue has been going on for years - But frankly it does little to help the artist or overall sales in the long run. Wet Wet Wet reached the Top 10 by releasing 15 download versions of a single, it spent 1 week in the Top 75 and is not remembered.

As much as I can understand where you're coming from as regards seeing this as a problem, I do not care a huge amount about it. It's a rather tame form of chart manipulation in comparison to holding stuff back and so on - it is at the end of the day the obsessive fans that decide to multi-buy. Chart manipulation isn't something that's of huge interest to me, it's distasteful but largely harmless at the end of the day, at least in this form.

Definitely no. Multiple versions of the same song usually impact only its first week so it allows the track debut higher which is always a good thing for the chart's dynamism. Everyone is entitled to release as many versions of his songs as he wants so it's fair play.

Perhaps there is a case for limiting the number of individual-track standalone versions that can count towards the chart position of a title, thereby you only target the spammers like The Vamps and M.A.D. while still allowing people to cherry-pick tracks from multi-track EP’s, albums, and compilations.

Perhaps there is a case for limiting the number of individual-track standalone versions that can count towards the chart position of a title, thereby you only target the spammers like The Vamps and M.A.D. while still allowing people to cherry-pick tracks from multi-track EP’s, albums, and compilations.

 

That would be pointless though as, as stated before, people can cherry-pick tracks from EPs to get the track to chart higher in the exact same way that the separate versions of songs are bought for The Vamps, etc.

 

Bré summed it up perfectly IMO, it *does* help show the song's popularity and it's the fanbase's choice to buy it if they want. I've bought all versions of both Vamps singles because I actually want to hear them, not just to help the song up the chart (although that's a benefit of it still).

It doesn't show the popularity of a song to the masses; it shows that there is a finite number of obsessives willing to part with their money for (often minutely) different versions of the same song. Which is a more popular song - one that 10,000 people buy one version or one where 1,000 buy 10 versions each?