Big sad thing big chart of year Christmas chart not as exciting any more you know gone wham 2 years and had ladbaby 5 years

42 minutes ago, Scone1 said:

Don't know if its possible but stop counting pre created playlists on Spotify Amazon etc.

Don't Billboard do something like this? In articles about their charts they mention "on-demand" streams, what's stopping the OCC from doing this?

I think this makes more sense for the US charts where they include airplay. That combined with streaming has led to the super long runs we have seen on the hot 100. As we don’t do that here (thank goodness), then ACR works well.

As annoying as it is seeing Mr Brightside, Iris and the various Fleetwood Mac songs hovering around, they aren’t really blocking anything from becoming a hit. Might help something go top 75 rather than top 100, but that isn’t going to improve its visibility beyond us chart followers.

Christmas songs are more of a concern as they do go top 40, which does get more visibility. Unless more is done by artists/labels to push new music again in November/December, then a chart tweak alone won’t really do much to change listening habits, which is the bigger issue here. Last year felt like there was more going on then with That’s So True being the notable example, so hopefully a sign labels haven’t completely given up on that period yet.

I really think it would be impossible to try and remove stream numbers depending on if it’s played from a playlist as opposed to a from the album/ single/ personal playlist

3 hours ago, gasman449 said:

Don't Billboard do something like this? In articles about their charts they mention "on-demand" streams, what's stopping the OCC from doing this?

I might be wrong, but I think On-Demand, at least originally, referred to ALL Spotify, Apple Music, etc. streams (including playlists, radio and autoplay).

The non On-Demand streams came from video streaming services like YouTube and sites like the original Pandora which apparently was more like a personalized algorithmic radio station than something like Spotify where you can just type in songs you want to listen to. YouTube Music and the new Pandora I assume would be counted in On-Demand as they seem to be more like Spotify clones rather than the video/personalized radio services the original versions were.

I’m a firm yes for this, but perhaps give songs a year of charting before clearing them out rather than a song being taken out just because it’s dropped below a position after x amount of weeks.

Unfortunately with the way music is consumed these days, I think there’s no choice to add in lots of rules to make a chart work. ACR might have had the right idea but it is poorly executed, the drop in streaming ratio is too harsh/quick and then there’s the dodge rules and resetting which makes the whole thing utterly pointless. We’ve actually had more songs charting 20 weeks or more in the top 10 since ACR came in because of this.

I think the streaming ratio of 1:150 as a flat rate should be applied as it matches with basically every other singles chart going. Then instead of ACR boost single sales for 12 weeks by reducing it to 1:100 and then after that it declines back to 1:150 gradually over two weeks. That’s it, the only exception should be if a song has yet to peak in the top 10 and it’s still gaining momentum. Then after a year songs are cleared out, if they are below the top 40 and move to include the top 30 after 60 weeks or something. Also ban any album tracks and have them chart in a separate songs chart. If they decide to push a single then it moves across with a lower ratio as if it was a brand new single release. Also as many singles as an artist can pump out in a year should chart too.

That would be a good starting point I feel, sorry that ended up a long winded post.

Edited October 22, 2025Oct 22 by Supercell

I think they should just not include playlists at all in the chart, “sales” should only come from direct play from the artists Spotify page, and yes I know it’s a miniscule fraction of a sale not a sale per play but it really is like listening to radio when you pop a playlist on, it should not count. 🤷‍♂️

That might help some of the obvious manipulation of the charts and the heavy American presence on it since Spotify favours American artists.

The irony is, I imagine a lot of the plays for current chart hits come from curated playlists (e.g. Hot Hits UK), so removing them or penalising them would likely only benefit stuff like Mr Brightside, Iris, Dreams, etc which will be mainstays on user-curated playlists more prominently, and it would make it tougher for new stuff to stick.

Artist pages also have a similar arbitrary* 'radio' like effect. Did anyone notice how "Cruel Summer" utterly collapsed around the world on October 8th? That's a very random date, 5 days after Taylor Swift's new album came out (and the song actually climbed on that Friday), because it's the day that her artist page on Spotify updated to only have the new album in her top 10. I don't doubt that her fans are happy with hearing the song, but a lot of the people listening to that, "cardigan", "august" and the like were just doing it incidentally because they showed up when you look up Taylor Swift. A year and a half after release, "Anti-Hero" was still generating 1.5 million Spotify streams a day. Now another year and a half on it's getting less than 0.5 million. You don't see those kinds of declines organically. It was the same case there. Her new album just took it out of contention, and it never recovered because it needed those streams to thrive.

*Well it might be initiated by user activity, but there's an 'if it's up, then it's stuck' element to that

I'd like them to introduce that only official singles can chart in the charts as it is called the official singles chart and possibly introduce a new chart for album tracks. that way it would free up the top 100 more for some actual ," official singles," to make the chart.

Single's are rarely the best tracks though a lot of the time

What is and isnt an official single isnt black or white anymore either.

Take lily Allen as a recent example PP is and has been doing the best but Madeline was serviced to radio does that mean we shouldn't acknowledge the formers success in favour of the latter

Yeah they had the “only official singles can chart” rule in 2006 and it was bad enough then. It definitely wouldn’t work with the way people consume music now.

Yeah the charts have effectively been a "songs chart" since 2007 when all downloads were eligible.

I preferred the charts from 2007 to 2014 when it was fairly straightforward - downloads/physical sales only pretty much. I guess the early years of streaming were fine but the ACR/SCR stuff was necessary albeit hasn't rid the charts of any issues.

I think after 18 months or so removing songs from the singles chart is a good idea personally.

Having two charts for songs would probably be a good compromise going forward, one for official singles and another for singles/album tracks/songs older than 18 months. That way there’s still an element of seeing how any song is doing in terms of popularity but the singles chart is reserved for a more competitive format and breaking new music. I think in the streaming era it would work especially with post album singles as they would just move across and not have ACR being applied for 10 weeks, which with a well timed remix might give a big first week boost effect. ACR itself though needs a major overhaul though as I think that itself is part of the problem, but there’s a lot that needs to change for singles and albums really.

Double ACR would work in my opinion because it is causing lots of songs to miss the top ten. Some of which I liked.

2 hours ago, adrianreavill83 said:

Double ACR would work in my opinion because it is causing lots of songs to miss the top ten. Some of which I liked.

Of they're not popular enough, then so be it

12 hours ago, Supercell said:

I think after 18 months or so removing songs from the singles chart is a good idea personally.

Having two charts for songs would probably be a good compromise going forward, one for official singles and another for singles/album tracks/songs older than 18 months. That way there’s still an element of seeing how any song is doing in terms of popularity but the singles chart is reserved for a more competitive format and breaking new music. I think in the streaming era it would work especially with post album singles as they would just move across and not have ACR being applied for 10 weeks, which with a well timed remix might give a big first week boost effect. ACR itself though needs a major overhaul though as I think that itself is part of the problem, but there’s a lot that needs to change for singles and albums really.

I would agree with this and i think it would allow for new music to make its way in the charts aswell.