The whole charts are now meaningless anyway. It's not just Christmas. Passive plays dominate the makeup of the charts all year round.

 

Since Space Man, Sam has been shafted by the streamers, so good on him for playing the game I say.

Edited December 18, 20232 yr by AcerBen

I disagree that playlists dictate the charts through the year - they do have quite a big effect at Christmas for sure and they affect the album charts quite a lot which is silly. But we’ve seen plenty of examples of current songs that are not well playlisted becoming hits and vice versa. What really drives hits at the moment is going viral - TikTok and so on.

 

I have mixed feelings about the Alexa Christmas exclusives - at least they bring a bit of fresh blood into the charts, if we’re lucky with a decent song like Sam’s.

I disagree that playlists dictate the charts through the year - they do have quite a big effect at Christmas for sure and they affect the album charts quite a lot which is silly. But we’ve seen plenty of examples of current songs that are not well playlisted becoming hits and vice versa. What really drives hits at the moment is going viral - TikTok and so on.

 

I have mixed feelings about the Alexa Christmas exclusives - at least they bring a bit of fresh blood into the charts, if we’re lucky with a decent song like Sam’s.

 

Fair enough it's possible to break through without playlists, but it's still wrong to me that "passive" listening has such a direct impact on the charts.

Fair enough it's possible to break through without playlists, but it's still wrong to me that "passive" listening has such a direct impact on the charts.

It's not really passive. If the listener doesn't like a song, he will skip it and the stream won't be counted.

lol welcome back to 2023, now it's TIKTOK that dictates the chart, playlist during the year have a smaller and smaller effect

 

the problem is with Alexa is not the passive listening, I still remember how River made it to #1

cos Alexa was playing:

River-Wham-River-Mariah-River-Brenda-Pogues-Kelly-River-Wham-River

 

that's 1000% chart manipulation, if people don't see that, buy some glasses lol :D

River-Wham-River-Mariah-River-Brenda-Pogues-Kelly-River-Wham-River

That sounds very extreme. Was it really the case? Did you have Alexa at the time?

It must be true because Bjork has never been prone to exaggerating.

It's not really passive. If the listener doesn't like a song, he will skip it and the stream won't be counted.

 

That has to be done in the first 30 seconds though, I can't count the amount of times I've had something come on randomly that I didn't like but contributed a stream towards because I was foo preoccupied to press skip within 30 seconds.

Plus it literally is passive if you don’t specifically choose to listen to a song, they can sneak anything on those playlists and watch them rack up streams. I can’t imagine the amount of workplaces that just stick on Today’s Hot Hits (or whatever it’s called) instead of the radio.

That sounds very extreme. Was it really the case? Did you have Alexa at the time?

 

I can confiem. I had Alexa Prime those days, and yup, that's how it aent down. She spammed Wham and Eiver, absolutely spammed them, and tried to keep Mariah plays to a minimum that she could get away with.

That sounds very extreme. Was it really the case? Did you have Alexa at the time?

My sister-in-law has an Alexa and from being there on Boxing Day that year I can confirm that's pretty much how it went.

 

I’m just glad it’s a good song from Alexa tbh. Sams one is a great song! Usually they push the shit ones (ie river, George Ezra and lizzos ones) i will stand by the fact that the only good one besides Sam is Maisie Peters one from last year. Why oh why did they not push that one I wil never know, I adore that song!

Cher now #1 on iTunes so that TikTok not going anywhere

I wish Cher had caught on just a little earlier she might even have challenged for top 10 the way she’s going

I'm surprised Spotify don't copy Alexa and have Christmas exclusives. Stick it on the top of their playlists and would be a global number 1.

I'm surprised Spotify don't copy Alexa and have Christmas exclusives. Stick it on the top of their playlists and would be a global number 1.

 

Amazon have the advantage of not having their streaming numbers publicly available. With Spotify the fraud would be too obvious, it wouldn’t work

wouldn't work on Spotify cos the issue is not having exclusive songs

not even having them as track #1 on a playlist

if Spotify'd put a exclusive as track #1 on their playlist the effect would be negative cos people would start directly with song 2

 

the problem is that Alexa doesn't follow a playlist, Alexa plays whatever she feels like, and it's not only that it gives priority to the exclusives, the big issue is that it plays them on a loop

of course I'm exaggerating a but with the Ellie example but that's how they managed, pure and simple.

 

it's not about being exclusive, being #1 on a playlist it's about Alexa playing targeted songs on a loop in a repeated pattern

ypu cannot do that on Spotify

the problem is with Alexa is not the passive listening, I still remember how River made it to #1

cos Alexa was playing:

River-Wham-River-Mariah-River-Brenda-Pogues-Kelly-River-Wham-River

 

that's 1000% chart manipulation, if people don't see that, buy some glasses lol :D

 

There was discussion here at the time that the reason for River's manipulation was that the OCC were determined to stop Mariah going to number 1 although she finally did the following year.

Sam Ryder is putting the work in it seems, looks like a different city each day to flog the CD.

 

Talking of the CD it is currently unavailable on Amazon, but you can download it. Is that an Amazon exclusive too?

I'm surprised Spotify don't copy Alexa and have Christmas exclusives. Stick it on the top of their playlists and would be a global number 1.

They do and have done for years now... Laufey's 'Winter Wonderland' is in the chart as a Spotify exclusive because of its playlist inclusion. It just doesn't have the same impact/push as Alexa.