The OCC charts are big joke now. They have always been a bit silly, but never as bad as they are them moment. The problem is that the OCC have two competing interests trying to take control of the charts. And try as they might the OCC are the Industry charts and have to make a compromise, but it simply can't work.

First competitor is the streaming market. The other is the sales market. To get them to balance the "stream" is treated as a sale. But streaming are never sales, no matter how much they adjust them. Sales by definition have a limit. Streaming has no limit.

But the two markets will not concede to the other. And so the OCC has to shunt between the two sides. What should have happened to the charts is that streaming should have taken over completely. But the sites still selling the records and of course part of the OCC would not allow that. Or you could argue that the OCC should have kept it a sales only chart, no streams at all, but of course that would have upset the other side of the Industry.

 

The main issue over the charts is getting shut of records that are popular with the public. The sales chart had a way of doing that naturally. Nobody keeps buying the same track over and over again. On most of the main downloading sites you can't actually do it. Since after purchase once, it tells you that you have purchased the track, if you try again. If your file is deleted accidently or on purpose you can still download it again for free. And it doesn't count towards the charts.

However streaming has no limits on how many times you can listen. So there is no way of getting shut of records. Of course if someone does bring an album out that has 16 to 20+ tracks on it then people will download the tracks off it individually or buy the album. However there is a limit. So by week two of the release of this albums track sales will go into decline, by week three some of the tracks will fall so low in sales to drop out of the 100 chart and so on.

Yet in streaming there is no limit and in fact more people could start listening more because the tracks are part of a chart, which is displayed on streaming sites.

 

The only way to solve this problem is for the OCC to put some very strict rules on streaming of the most popular records. But if streaming does win over the sales side of things as it appears to be doing, they are just putting off what most come to past, a chart of the most popular records. But the chart has always been a sales chart. But streaming in full control is not a sales chart.

It would be a chart of who's got the biggest marketing budget or fan base. Which is what we are seeing since streaming was introduced.

However it's a chart few people are interested in.

I don't think the Drake' "playlist" will make much of a top 40 impact, but lots of tracks will appear between 41-100.

Just the small matter of 12 tracks in the Top 40. I wish you were right.

Just the small matter of 12 tracks in the Top 40. I wish you were right.

He really outdid my expectations, I thought he'd have a few tracks go top 40 but not 12.

 

The OCC really need to sort this out asap, it's ridiculous that half the songs in this week's top 40 are album tracks.

Now surely the OCC need to take swift action as it is taking the piss where more than half of the Top40 are made up by two artists.

 

 

it's ridiculous that half the songs in this week's top 40 are album tracks.

 

Which proves:

 

The Singles chart is more-or-less dead

 

The OCC couldn't care less.

 

I don't know how the OCC makes money - from adverts on their site? - but if there's no financial reason to change the chart I doubt they will. The OCC site is praising Sheeran's chart success. They don't seem bothered by it.

 

the BBC will be VERY bothered by it, since they broadcast the farce under the banner "Singles" chart. Oddly they don't broadcast an album chart and play album tracks......

The main OCC consumers are record labels and TV/radio who play the chart shows. And I doubt any of them are fine with this situation.

Yeah, more TV/Radio are likely to play Big Top 40 where they don't have album tracks as much. I think it will change soon. I'm sure the next album by Beyonce, Adele or Justin Bieber would do the same.

 

If Stormzy can even take over streaming then someone similar could as well even!

Which proves:

 

The Singles chart is more-or-less dead

 

The OCC couldn't care less.

 

I don't know how the OCC makes money - from adverts on their site? - but if there's no financial reason to change the chart I doubt they will. The OCC site is praising Sheeran's chart success. They don't seem bothered by it.

The OCC is a not-for-profit organisation and is jointly owned by the BPI and ERA, the organisations which represent the record industry and record retailers. Some of the money the OCC make is from marketing and licensing the charts while they also make money from selling the data they collect to organisations within the music industry.

Kendrick Lamar has his new album coming out 07/04. I think he'll do at least as well as Stormzy on streaming so there's another album takeover to prepare for.

Kendrick Lamar has his new album coming out 07/04. I think he'll do at least as well as Stormzy on streaming so there's another album takeover to prepare for.

Yeah you might be right, his album surpassed my expectations as to how it did. Katy Perry might have some songs appear as well when her album is released.

Some major information that I saw on Facebook:

 

Statement from the Official Charts Company:

 

"We shouldn't and won't rush into any knee jerk reaction around changing the way streaming is counted for the purposes of the top 40 singles chart"

 

Kevin Brown:

Chair of The Official Charts Company.

 

And someone replied:

 

(The same Kevin Brown who is also head of artists & label services (international) at Spotify)

 

The boss of the OCC is part of Spotify! <_< This explains why the official singles chart is so streaming based. The boss of OCC also wants people to stream songs on Spotify. Seems like a conflict of interest! With this guy running the OCC there will never be any change to the chart format. It's a rigged system - the chart is run by a guy that wants streaming tracks to dominate the chart. The boss of the OCC should not have a vested interest in Spotify.

Edited March 25, 20178 yr by soundman

Streaming isn't the problem though - it's allowing non-singles into a singles chart...

so basically the OCC are only going to act in the interests of Spotify now? in that case we shouldn't expect any change as all these singles chart takeovers only help promote the power of streaming.

 

-_-

Kendrick Lamar has his new album coming out 07/04. I think he'll do at least as well as Stormzy on streaming so there's another album takeover to prepare for.

 

The Chainsmokers' new album too is out on that week, I am sure Mr Pmt is looking forward to seeing some album tracks in the charts from them particularly.

The Chainsmokers' new album too is out on that week, I am sure Mr Pmt is looking forward to seeing some album tracks in the charts from them particularly.

The Chainsmokers are amazing though, so I'd be more than happy for them to have a lot of album tracks in the top 40.

Streaming isn't the problem though - it's allowing non-singles into a singles chart...

 

Pretty much this.

While the OCC is run by a man that has a job with Spotify - marketing European acts! - there won't be any change to the chart format. No limit on singles per artists, no re-classification of what is or isn't a "single" - we're all wasting our time thinking there will be any change. Brown has a vested interest in keeping the singles chart full of Spotify album tracks and other non-single material.

 

As mentioned by others, the OCC is unfit for purpose - it's in league with Spotify - they are directly linked because Brown was hired by Spotify (!) - so the whole concept of the SINGLES chart has been corrupted. Any change will be superficial - such as altering the streaming ratio - but real substantive change will never happen.

The Chainsmokers are amazing though, so I'd be more than happy for them to have a lot of album tracks in the top 40.

 

I don't know how many album tracks will be in the charts from The Chainsmokers album, I am guessing there would be at least as many as Kendrick.

I don't know how many album tracks will be in the charts from The Chainsmokers album, I am guessing there would be at least as many as Kendrick.

Realistically, there'll probably be 3 album tracks maximum from The Chainsmokers and maybe 5-7 from Kendrick :D