Time flies doesn't it!! Mixed feelings here Sunday chart day meant every Sunday without fail i'd be listening to the chart (at the time too I wasn't active on here or on chart forums so didn't as closely follow midweeks) so often the chart then was in some ways a surprise! Also back then when sales itself dominated there was potential for change from the final set of mids to chart day! Although held back releases were frustrating (I seen Gaga mentioned earlier and besides Just Dance over here I don't think anything else was ever held back.. and she had several midweek releases where higher peaks could've been achieved!!).

The positive of Friday chart day is obviously no held back releases and the excitement of New Music Fridays but the charts can feel stagnant and I don't get the chance to listen live as much although I do check this site each week and then go straight to the OCC one for 5:45😆. I think these days because I'm on here a lot and also know of the midweeks and check those too there's less surprises when I do hear the chart but I do still try and hear it when I can it can just be tricky with work i'm either commuting home to the office or have duties with my nephews at the time it's on to hear live!

I've noticed however that there's less charity #1s in this era (I mean we had Christmas LadBaby..) and obviously reality TV acts from talent shows rarely ever chart now unless they're an established act like say Harry Styles for instance; much harder in streaming world for an X Factor like show to produce an act in this chart era as it was the sales era! And i'd say the media also impacts the charts much less in the sales era we'd see TV performances could really make a difference to a songs success but these days it's all to do with streaming playlisting.

Another advantage of the charts being on Sundays instead of Fridays is that the chart got played in full instead of them picking and choosing what songs to play

I wouldn't call that an "advantage" in the streaming era. Could you imagine hearing Beautiful Things every week for over a year (wait....)

57 minutes ago, lewistgreen said:

I wouldn't call that an "advantage" in the streaming era. Could you imagine hearing Beautiful Things every week for over a year (wait....)

At least it would stop the new songs being skipped

Luckily for me (and the chart show thread here too!!) I've got a job that slots in nicely with a 4pm chart on a Friday, so I'm still able to enjoy it and have listened almost every week! I didn't really like the old format of playing the top 25, with #26-40 only covered by recaps. Many great songs, including some long runners, never got full chart plays because they couldn't break into the top 25 of a chart without ACR - 2016 was particularly slow and it made 2025 look like it has a high turnover!

The switch to the current format in 2017, plus the ACR rule, have helped the chart remain interesting to me, even if they're less dynamic than they were in previous eras (but that's for another thread as it's not about the move to Friday). There's really no need to play every song in the top 40 these days, it'd be a slog if they tried to do that, so the current format works when they apply it fairly and prioritise new entries and high climbers; to be fair, they do this well 9 times out of 10.

I think the chart had to move with the global release date coming in. Of course, we know songs take longer to peak on streaming, but most albums peak on week 1, and there had to be an incentive for labels to commit to the global release date - they simply wouldn't if they were splitting week 1 sales between two chart weeks, we'd still have albums coming out on Mondays here but they'd have leaked online on Fridays with international releases, like what was happening before. Furthermore, as said before, the held-back approach was still being utilised in the singles chart at the time, so week 1 peaks were still commonplace in 2015.

I'm happy with the chart where it is and I don't think it should or would change now - it has a captive audience in the drivetime slot so it should have a stable bank of listeners, even if they're not specifically tuning in because they have an active interest in the chart.

It wouldn’t make a difference to me whatever day it was. If you look at billboard they still only announce it on Monday so there is no reason they couldn’t align with a global release date and still do the chart on Sunday if it was more popular but I doubt it was. I wasn’t paying attention much to the charts at the time so not sure but interest was gradually declining for a long time probably.

It feels strange now to think that a song would be played on the radio for two months before you could even download it, and that was happening into the 2010s as well.

If anything I'm surprised it took so long to implement the whole "song is released at the same time it's heard".

I just don't understand why they felt the need to change it, I lost interest for a long time when they changed the date and added streaming. I still think Sunday was the best as we class it as end of the week.

I would prefer new music to be released on Sunday as with work stuff I can't always dedicate the time to it on a Friday, but it's not really feasible in today's global market.

I stay album chart got worst since streaming add to it use get top 20 run down on Sunday now just top 5.

2015 to 2017 was weird singles chart did start after 5pm wired oh summer had summer mag mix 15 bit into show. Or random album track and think 1st 30 min new music only good idea. New format came in because ed Sheeran album took up all top 20 singles. Uk singles not as bad Irish chart even worst over there still prefer Sunday as end of week new music day should been Monday.

I reckon if they don’t wanna put the chart back to Sundays, they should at least move it to Wednesdays or Thursdays. Especially when you get some songs being released on both days and some Asda stores releasing their music albums on the Wednesday or Thursday like my local Asda sometimes does. If it was on Wednesdays or Thursdays, it wouldn’t be cut short due to dance anthems

Edited Sunday at 10:485 days by Hadji

I think we're lucky Radio 1 still even want to broadcast it live to an audience so I'll take the 1hr45 we get on a Friday because the OCC could easily just publish without any airtime and post a 60sec rundown on socials. Sometimes it's easy to forget that we (Buzzjack)/any avid chart fans are in the minority when it comes to caring about these sorts of things and it could all be taken away at the drop of a hat. I'm not sure of listening figures for the chart specifically on Radio 1 but it never appears in BBC Sounds' data collection each quarter for RAJAR.

8 hours ago, kimberley88 said:

I just don't understand why they felt the need to change it, I lost interest for a long time when they changed the date and added streaming. I still think Sunday was the best as we class it as end of the week.

They changed it to align it with New Music Friday, a global music industry initiative to allow new releases to come out on the same day internationally. Before that, the UK had new singles on Sunday and new albums on Monday, but they came out the Friday before in the US, and in Ireland, etc. It was messy and paved the way for leaks very easily. Moving the chart date to align with this gave new releases a fighting chance on week 1, and this occurred before it became more common for songs to rise to their peak like they do nowadays.

4 minutes ago, Hadji said:

I reckon if they don’t wanna put the chart back to Sundays, they should at least move it to Wednesdays or Thursdays. Especially when you get some songs being released on both days and some Asda stores releasing their music albums on the Wednesday or Thursday like my local Asda sometimes does. If it was on Wednesdays or Thursdays, it wouldn’t be cut short due to dance anthems

There's absolutely no chance of them ditching the alignment with the global release date because Asda puts new stuff out on Wednesday or Thursday (either several days late, or breaking embargos and putting them out early).

4 minutes ago, JosephBoone said:

There's absolutely no chance of them ditching the alignment with the global release date because Asda puts new stuff out on Wednesday or Thursday (either several days late, or breaking embargos and putting them out early).

Not just because of some Asda stores releasing their music products early. Not all new songs are being released on Fridays. I’ve seen some songs still being released between Mondays and Thursdays; mostly Wednesdays and Thursdays

I'm still of the opinion that they should compile the chart the same way they do now (Friday-Thursday tracking) but broadcast/reveal it on Sunday. That way we can get accurate Thursday streams plus the classic Sunday chart show slot back. Billboard reveals their charts on Monday so I really don't see the harm in delaying the reveals in the UK

Edited Sunday at 11:015 days by gasman449

Just now, Hadji said:

Not just because of some Asda stores releasing their music products early. Not all new songs are being released on Fridays. I’ve seen some songs still being released between Mondays and Thursdays; mostly Wednesdays and Thursdays

And that's the label/artist's choice to release on a different day, they know how the chart week operates and it's pretty much the same across the world now. Entirely up to them if they choose to release on different days. They're in the minority so there's no way the chart should cater to that first.

lol Hadji you really hit a new low, the whole world should change the release schedule following Asda lol

3 minutes ago, gasman449 said:

I'm still of the opinion that they should compile the chart the same way they do now (Friday-Thursday tracking) but broadcast/reveal it on Sunday. That way we can get accurate Thursday streams plus the classic Sunday chart show slot back. Billboard reveals their charts on Monday so I really don't see the harm in delaying the reveals in the UK

The OCC could get accurate streams too, they just need to apply some pressure to spotify, who could get the data if they wanted at 00:00:00:01 on Friday.

The difference with the US is that there is no live show reveal, no broadcast.

14 minutes ago, Bjork said:

The OCC could get accurate streams too, they just need to apply some pressure to spotify, who could get the data if they wanted at 00:00:00:01 on Friday.

The difference with the US is that there is no live show reveal, no broadcast.

Agreed, it's still completely baffling to me that it seems everyone within the music industry has just accepted that Thursday streaming data isn't possible to accurately disclose for whatever reason and some random algorithm is a perfectly fine alternative. Probably cost many past hits a higher peak.

21 minutes ago, Bjork said:

lol Hadji you really hit a new low, the whole world should change the release schedule following Asda lol

Sundays were better. Fridays chart is terrible and Sundays had more listeners than Fridays and did I say the whole world? Does the UK count as the whole world. Oh dear oh dear. Looks like it’s you that’s hit a new low for saying the whole world instead of the UK

Edited Sunday at 11:295 days by Hadji