Ultimately, charts are supposed to represent popularity. 1000 fans buying 5 copies (5,000 sales) is not as good as 5,000 people buying 1 copy (5,000 sales). There should be rules to ensure that *actual* popularity is rewarded. Otherwise, the charts mean nothing and they lose any credibility they have left.

 

A good thing the Red CDs were limited to 2 per account then isn't it, not much more Taylor can do about people making multiple accounts!

Ultimately, charts are supposed to represent popularity. 1000 fans buying 5 copies (5,000 sales) is not as good as 5,000 people buying 1 copy (5,000 sales). There should be rules to ensure that *actual* popularity is rewarded. Otherwise, the charts mean nothing and they lose any credibility they have left.

You might have opened up a can of worms there - I agree fundamentally with what you say though.

Main issue I see with all this (and to a certain extent the Streaming model) is it is just harder for new acts to make an impression on the charts!

I don’t get why these artists don’t start playing Taylor at her own game. Just start releasing thousands of signed CD’s and singles, sell them at cost price, and see how she likes it.

 

They have Little Mix have done signed art cards and bundles with the CDs and Vinyl, Rod Stewart done 2,000 signed art cards, The Wanted have signed CDs, Personalised signing sessions via Banquet and HMV signings etc.,

Little mix are no better than Taylor, those silly signed art cards they stick with everything some intern has probably signed thousands and they are sat waiting whenever something is released to stick one with and call it 'signed'.

You might have opened up a can of worms there - I agree fundamentally with what you say though.

Main issue I see with all this (and to a certain extent the Streaming model) is it is just harder for new acts to make an impression on the charts!

 

That’s one of my main issues with it as well. If you have a few powerful businesses/artists wielding immense power and exploiting their resources, you’re going to obviously get a two tier, oligopolistic system in any industry.

They have Little Mix have done signed art cards and bundles with the CDs and Vinyl, Rod Stewart done 2,000 signed art cards, The Wanted have signed CDs, Personalised signing sessions via Banquet and HMV signings etc.,

 

But Little Mix for instance can’t afford to sell them at such a low price like Taylor.

I’m surprised Taylor only did a little more than 2k yesterday- I thought she’d be doing more than that on streaming alone.

Ultimately, charts are supposed to represent popularity. 1000 fans buying 5 copies (5,000 sales) is not as good as 5,000 people buying 1 copy (5,000 sales). There should be rules to ensure that *actual* popularity is rewarded. Otherwise, the charts mean nothing and they lose any credibility they have left.

 

But promoting multiple buying has been a thing for years especially in singles where in the physical age we had CD1, CD2, Cassette etc., same with download when an artist would release 10 remixes and now the same is happening with streaming.

 

I’d much rather an artist get inflated album sales from fans buying multiple physical copies than what we have seen recently with high charting platinum albums from the likes of Mabel etc., that are only selling a handful of albums but have songs added to various streaming playlists that inflate album sales and give them 50+ week chart runs when nobody is actually listening to the album but a few songs on main playlists.

But Little Mix for instance can’t afford to sell them at such a low price like Taylor.

 

Little Mix signed CDs were £10.99 on Amazon, Taylor’s are £13.99 and £1.95 delivery?

At least it's not 30,000 signed CDs like Ed, that was the most unbelievable ever

 

 

Ultimately, charts are supposed to represent popularity. 1000 fans buying 5 copies (5,000 sales) is not as good as 5,000 people buying 1 copy (5,000 sales). There should be rules to ensure that *actual* popularity is rewarded. Otherwise, the charts mean nothing and they lose any credibility they have left.

 

Similar way a bunch of teenagers streaming 24/7 certain artists and/or playlists is not a valid representation of polularity either. On the other hand someone would say strong fanbase should be rewarded. Everybody listens to ed sheeran and ariana grande but who cares that much to maintain lets say a collection of their cd singles or travel to another continent to meet them or watch them live? And dont get me wrong, i am not saying nobody but the percentage of what is supposed to be their popularity should be really small

Little Mix signed CDs were £10.99 on Amazon, Taylor’s are £13.99 and £1.95 delivery?

 

Little Mix don’t have the power to announce new signed singles and albums at low price mid-week after looking at the chart update, like Taylor does. All the time.

 

I would love to see how some people defending this would react to Adele wielding her even more immense power and doing the same thing. I don’t think they’d react too kindly to it, because they know instinctually it’s wrong and unfair.

I don’t get why these artists don’t start playing Taylor at her own game. Just start releasing thousands of signed CD’s and singles, sell them at cost price, and see how she likes it.

 

I can’t really say Taylor is in the wrong because it’s in the rules, but very few artists resort to these stunts to the extent Taylor does on a consistent basis. She clearly has an advantage being a bigger artist and therefore having the power and budget to do this kind of stuff, which means other artists who can’t afford to do it suffer as a result.

This makes no sense. Taylor's selling these copies because there's demand, and economics dictates there's nothing wrong with that. Not every artist who releases signed CDs gets there, no? The album is doing extremely well on Spotify, showing people are liking it, and streaming platforms give a much better indication of what's popular with different demographics, while relying on pure sales alone indicates your popularity is restricted to an older demographic. Additionally, Taylor's CDs cost around £15, which is a fair bit more expensive than CDs being sold by other acts. The fact that they're being sold while also being streamed heavily is enough to declare Red TV the most popular album this week, which is what the chart is meant to represent.

Just be glad she's not selling 30,000 CDs like Ed Sheeran.

Similar way a bunch of teenagers streaming 24/7 certain artists and/or playlists is not a valid representation of polularity either. On the other hand someone would say strong fanbase should be rewarded. Everybody listens to ed sheeran and ariana grande but who cares that much to maintain lets say a collection of their cd singles or travel to another continent to meet them or watch them live? And dont get me wrong, i am not saying nobody but the percentage of what is supposed to be their popularity should be really small

 

On Billboard now, you have a situation in which 60% of the #1 singles have never been heard by 90% of the American public, because of artists doing bundles, signed CD’s, multiple versions, and the list goes on. It’s not healthy for the industry as a whole and that’s where the UK charts are headed and have been headed for quite some time. Luckily, the UK charts have stricter regulations such as not mindlessly combining multiple versions of the same song, but it’s still not good enough.

The thing is signed stuff has always existed and always used to increase sales

it's not like Taylor invented it this week lol

 

but in order for it to be believable and accountable for, it needs to be few copies

cannot be 30,000 like Ed

I mean if people are genuinely worried about new artists breaking through (and not just wanting to take a pop at Taylor), the real issue is how reluctant Spotify is to playlist stuff on major playlists. Taylor or Little Mix signing some copies on release week is going to have negligible impact on acts being able to break through. Could somebody maybe provide some examples of acts that haven’t been able to breakthrough into the album chart because of some signed copies?

Little Mix don’t have the power to announce new signed singles and albums at low price mid-week after looking at the chart update, like Taylor does. All the time.

 

Low priced midweek? The Taylor CDs are the same price as when they were on sale last week?

 

Also Little Mix and their huge label RCA managed perfectly fine to announce ‘midweek signed CDs’ when they were battling for the #1 position against Kylie last year?

Little Mix signed CDs were £10.99 on Amazon, Taylor’s are £13.99 and £1.95 delivery?

 

You can’t really compare because the signed cd’s sold out before the release was barely announced and were never restocked only had a few reappear from cancelled orders.

 

‘ Taylor‘ (An intern) has literally signed thousands upon thousands by the looks of it.

Good to see Kylie still top 10. Can she hold on for the rest of the week?

Low priced midweek? The Taylor CDs are the same price as when they were on sale last week?

 

Also Little Mix and their huge label RCA managed perfectly fine to announce ‘midweek signed CDs’ when they were battling for the #1 position against Kylie last year?

They never announced midweek signed cd’s that what we all wants as fans they just constantly upload £30/40 bundles we’ve never had a big signed cd release only the 500/1000 on Amazon which sells out on day 1 of pre-orders

 

They then go into expensive bundles...