I agree Josh, if album tracks are individually being streamed more than anything else then why not recognise that (as long as it doesn't mean Lorde misses the top 40 :teresa:), and making a rule to stop this would necessarily be somewhat arbitrary. The chart isn't supposed to be exciting, it's supposed to be a list of the most purchased and streamed somgs, which includes songs that aren't 'official singles'.

but do you really want to have 10 Ed Sheeran songs clogging up the official top 20 for months? because that is what's going to happen.

I hate how the charts have become these days..... I miss the excitement of buying a cd single and going into the shop seeing the chart positions..... the fact that one artist can have a whole album worth of songs in the top 40 singles chart is just ludicrous to me..... it used to be such an achievement to have a 5/6 week number 1 single.... now songs get 10+ weeks getting close to records set by Bryan Adams or wet wet wet like it's a piece of cake...... ridiculous.

but do you really want to have 10 Ed Sheeran songs clogging up the official top 20 for months? because that is what's going to happen.

 

What I want is irrelevant. If that is how people are consuming music in this country for the next few months then yes, that is what should happen.

but most people are not going to Spotify and say ph I'm gonna listen to Ed Sheeran's Barcelona

no, they go and listen to the whole album or most of it

so should count for the album charts, not for the singles, and definitely not for both

He's definitely going to have the top 16 on Friday!

but do you really want to have 10 Ed Sheeran songs clogging up the official top 20 for months? because that is what's going to happen.

Like Bre said, want we want is irrelevant. It's an official chart, not a personal chart. I don't want Rag n Bone Man in the top 10 for four months+ either but if the track is genuinely popular then fair enough. Same with these Ed Sheeran (and Stormzy tracks), it's not like these figures are made up, these songs are being listened to, therefore they are genuinely popular and therefore also deserve a place on an official list of most popular songs of that week, in my opinion.

Like Bre said, want we want is irrelevant. It's an official chart, not a personal chart. I don't want Rag n Bone Man in the top 10 for four months+ either but if the track is genuinely popular then fair enough. Same with these Ed Sheeran (and Stormzy tracks), it's not like these figures are made up, these songs are being listened to, therefore they are genuinely popular and therefore also deserve a place on an official list of most popular songs of that week, in my opinion.

Yes that's true BUT people are listening to these Ed songs for the album, not for the songs individually. It belongs to the album chart.

Yes that's true BUT people are listening to these Ed songs for the album, not for the songs individually. It belongs to the album chart.

Yep, this is my point either. People consume albums in the streaming era listening to all of the songs from them, but that doesn't mean they don't consume albums. We have an album chart for a reason.

Bad news for new artists or less popular acts. Their songs are going to be overshadowed in the charts and this could result in very very bad news for them. Sad day for music :(

if people are buying Ed Sheeran album tracks, which they are, then they should definitely count, but it's ridiculous that streams of the album (and lots of people are clearly streaming the entire album) count towards both charts. It should be one or the other.

Yes that's true BUT people are listening to these Ed songs for the album, not for the songs individually. It belongs to the album chart.

I do get that argument too and the way streams count towards two charts perhaps does sound a little silly but imo, it's the best way to do it without unnecessarily disqualifying songs from the chart. They may have had a huge platform (a massively popular album) as to why they're getting such huge streams but they are genuinely popular tracks. This is a bit of a silly comparison but I can't think of anything better right now (:lol:), songs perfomed on shows like X Factor/The Voice also have a huge platform and therefore have success of the back of it. The album here is the huge platform and the songs are receiving massive success because of it. (totally different I know but I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to say).

 

Also, I agree that a large amount of these streams are, of course, from listening to the album as a whole but the success of individual tracks on iTunes also proves that they are popular in their own right too. Idk, maybe it's just me but this seems the best way to do it for now, perhaps a way of splitting apart streams from when the tracks are listened to individually or as part of an album may be better but I'm not surr Spotify have that data and this seems like the next best thing for now, for me.

but think about how difficult it will get for new artists to get hit singles, if the chart is constantly took up by entire albums from popular artists due to streaming. It's not healthy for the industry.

 

clearly no one else will have an effect quite as big as Ed, but it'll still be bad if breaking artists aren't getting the time of day on the charts.

but think about how difficult it will get for new artists to get hit singles, if the chart is constantly took up by entire albums from popular artists due to streaming. It's not healthy for the industry.

 

clearly no one else will have an effect quite as big as Ed, but it'll still be bad if breaking artists aren't getting the time of day on the charts.

 

Surely Adele would have, if all her album tracks from '25' had been streamable on release week.

I'm not saying any songs should be disqualified. If a person listens to one, two, three, up to 50% of the songs from the album they should be counted in the singles chart but not in the albums chart. However, if a person listens to most, if not the whole, album, it should be counted towards the albums chart, because a person is listening to an album, not to certain songs! This means the album tracks will still chart but only if they are standing out enough to be listened as tracks, not as part of an album.

 

It's not about me liking or disliking the state of charts either, it's just about of trying to make it a fair play and excluding the double count of streams. They should be counted in one of the charts, not in both.

Edited March 4, 20178 yr by Zárate

Surely Adele would have, if all her album tracks from '25' had been streamable on release week.

Nah, Adele would have had a massive effect but I doubt it'd have been near the size of Ed's - Adele isn't necessarily a streaming artist as much as she is a sales/physicals artist whereas Ed Sheeran has a huge younger fanbase that'll stream the hell out of anything he releases.

Is that real?! That's impressive!!

The charts' job, in so much as it has a job, need not be super accurate, it should be more important for music that it is regularly breaking new artists and giving them a chance to get their voice heard amongst the noise. It is things like this that have made interest in the charts tail off rapidly.

 

Thing is, it's not that it's a majority of people that are Ed Sheeran fans, yet because of the way music distribution and listening habits works, the large minority blocks off all else. The large minority of people that are Ed Sheeran fans may be interested in the chart, but (without meaning to pre-judge), most of them probably aren't interested enough in music to care and yet their listening habits block out fans of other music from having representation in the charts meaning that probably the majority of people have no tracks they're particularly interested in. That's not good.

 

I honestly would say there's going to be a lot of tracks that will be considered to be 'classics' in the future that are never going to chart now because either radio won't play them or they aren't in the Spotify playlists right now but they'll develop a strong and loyal fanbase that'll keep playing them long after this latest bunch of chart-hoggers has been forgotten.

Good Lord, the charts are a mess. Can't go back now though, this is what people will have to put up with. I'm just glad I stopped being a chart fanatic years ago. Even my casual glances at the charts on a Friday might stop.

In theory, is people passively listening to the rest of the album tracks really that different than the large majority of general streams coming from people passively listening through curated playlists?

2017. The year that my 21 year obsession with the charts is finally killed.