Would double ACR be a solution?

I think the charts should be a level playing field, and that ACR goes against that as it is, so I don't think double ACR should happen. The more complicated, confusing and arbitary the chart rules get the harder it is for the average person to understand how the chart is compiled, and therefore the harder it is for them to understand what significance being number one is even meant to have. The chart has always had rules, but in the old days it was a straight tally of sales (admittedly in the very early days this was extrapolated from a small sample of retailers), with the highest seller at number one, which was really simple for even the most casual of chart music followers to understand, and any rules that did exist were there to keep the playing field level. Nowadays there are so many rules, and they mostly exist to purposely make the playing field less level rather than more level, and also serve to make things too complicated, to the point that even the more dedicated chart enthusiast is likely to get confused with it all at some point. Another point is that if the chart rules are so complicated, doesn't it make it harder for us to know if we can even trust they are calcuated correctly, and therefore potentially easier for the compliers or industry to just straight make it up (not saying they actually are making anything up, but all the different ratios etc would be the perfect obfuscation for it were they to decide to start making it up to purpose hinder or favour any particular release, artist or label).

I absolutely agree with this, except that having estimated how the level playing field chart would look for a year now I have reluctantly concluded that single ACR does have its place. If you are going to have a system to handicap old songs, which you probably do need in the streaming universe just because songs’ shelf lives are so long, it’s not a bad one really. If I get time I might do a list of the Top 20 hits that have been promoted to Top 10 by ACR, or the Top 50 and 60 hits that have been promoted to Top 40, and so on. For the most part it just gives songs that extra little leg up to be the size of hit that it feels they should be.

Overall I’m just about on board with different streaming ratios for free vs paid and SCR vs ACR, but any more complexity than that I think would jeopardise transparency and leave the charts too open to manipulation. I also agree with Bré that the active vs passive streaming issue isn’t that big a problem in the grand scheme of things; certainly no bigger than stores deciding what to stock and record companies deciding when to delete singles back in the physical days.