Somebody in Popjustice said that signed singles are no longer eligible to chart - does anybody know if this is true?

I think its a new rule, I didn't understand it 100% but

it says something like personalised and signed singles are no longer allowed:

 

Any pre-signed or personalised physical product will not be eligible for inclusion in the chart (i.e. products

featuring artist's signature, initial, autograph, writings, doodles and drawings made by artist in any part of

physical product prior to sale and/or any other feature that makes the product unique such as numbering).

 

I just realised they also introduced a new rule:

A track older than 3 years can automatically reset to SCR if that track has not charted in the Top 100 Official

Singles Chart within the past 3 years (excluding any track with a Christmas genre) and if its streams total

increases by 25 percentage points greater than the streaming market change week on week

Im pretty sure those rules were not there before,

this is the new singles rules pdf by the occ released August 2023:

 

https://www.officialcharts.com/sites/defaul...gust%202023.pdf

Any pre-signed or personalised physical product will not be eligible for inclusion in the chart (i.e. products

featuring artist's signature, initial, autograph, writings, doodles and drawings made by artist in any part of

physical product prior to sale and/or any other feature that makes the product unique such as numbering).

 

Jeeeez, what's Lewis Capaldi gonna do now?!

Nice to see they have a consistent rule in place. Feel like the cut off is rife for some muck ups, like if a song is moving on up at a steady but not 25% pace, re-enters the top 100 and *then* has its moment (more likely than you'd think with the way streams move up and down), it won't get the automatic reset. Or you have something like "505" that'll be stuck waiting until at least 2026 just because it had the gall to already do something like this (not sure if it ever did tick over 25% on a week but it looks like it got close), but did it too early. At least there'll be a little less uncertainty in all this.

I'm probably in the minority but that feels kind of harsh, it'll incentivise less artists to do signed stuff which will be a shame for fans and even smaller acts will struggle in the album's market. I didn't really think it was a big deal personally and kept things somewhat exciting idk.

I'm probably in the minority but that feels kind of harsh, it'll incentivise less artists to do signed stuff which will be a shame for fans and even smaller acts will struggle in the album's market. I didn't really think it was a big deal personally and kept things somewhat exciting idk.

The pdf that Bjork posted only applies to the singles chart, I’m not sure if it’s been added to the albums one too or not.

Aawh that’s a shame, i do love me a signed cd single but if they’re not gonna be eligible for the charts I doubt artists will do them anymore. I don’t really think there’s much issue with signed cd singles impacting the chart, maybe pointless going #1 solely due to the cds caused it?

I’m not on board with that at all, sales are hard enough to get these days and they’re wanting to eliminate one of the only things that drives them up? It’s more revenue for everyone involved and more publicity for the OCC, it makes people feel involved in the race to #1, just a stupid decision all around imo. The OCC might as well cease to exist if they just want to become the streaming chart.

The rule change regarding old songs getting re-sets sounds reasonable - hopefully that means there’ll be fewer apparently random re-sets like I Wanna Dance With Somebody getting one just because there’s a documentary being shown or something.

 

I don’t really see the need for banning signed singles from being counted either. It’s not like anyone is being forced to buy anything.

I do think that's not really something that was necessary to crack down on tbh. But yeah, I guess that'll be the end of signed Sheeran and Capaldi CDs lol ~ (although Ed signature collectors must have quite the stack of them already lmao)

 

That ACR adjustment seems sensible though and I guess explains why Tina Turner, Sinéad O'Connor and Glastonbury songs got resets - although still seems odd that 'Rocket Man' didn't get one, did it somehow not have a 25% increase? Pretty sure it hasn't charted within the last 3 years!

I wish they changed the ACR reset to 50% instead of 25%. I think having so many songs get pointless resets and hanging around for ages is a much bigger issue in the charts than cd singles giving songs a 1 week boost tbh. Where is the priorities

 

Though the old songs reset changes are so that is a plus from the rule changes

The automatic reset for a song that hasn’t charted for years and has the appropriate increase is a good move, should have just outright changed the rule after the RUTH saga tbh.

 

I agree with Kath about disqualifying signed physicals though. For all the support of Buzzjack faves and demonising of the Capaldi’s and Sheeran’s of the chart world, it does add some uncertainty to the chart and help keep things moving as we’ve seen over the past few weeks. The only thing I can see resulting from this is even more static charts.

I’m not on board with that at all, sales are hard enough to get these days and they’re wanting to eliminate one of the only things that drives them up? It’s more revenue for everyone involved and more publicity for the OCC, it makes people feel involved in the race to #1, just a stupid decision all around imo. The OCC might as well cease to exist if they just want to become the streaming chart.

 

Yep agreed with this as well!

I see there's also a new pdf with rules for albums from Aug 2023

and there is no mention of signed stuff

seems it's only for singles then

 

https://www.officialcharts.com/sites/defaul...gust%202023.pdf

Edited August 23, 20231 yr by Bjork

That no signed cds thing is NAFF!! And wgen did it come into play? Itwasn't last week, as Billie's fake casseroles were all signed by her intern...

I’d take fake CDs over fake (Autoplayola) streams personally :P

That no signed cds thing is NAFF!! And wgen did it come into play? Itwasn't last week, as Billie's fake casseroles were all signed by her intern...

Billie's cassettes weren't signed at all

I've obviously missed the origin of the whole cassette/casserole joke, was that an autocorrect gone wrong or something?

Billie's cassettes weren't signed at all

 

Could have sworn they were tbh!!