I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard candlemas mentioned anywhere as much as I have in this forum over the last few weeks 😭

16 hours ago, Hadji said:

You can like old Christmas music and not want it in the chart at the same time

So whats the solution? Disqualify it just because it annoys some people

4 hours ago, Rob said:

Has anyone ever topped both the Albums and Singles charts at Xmas? Curious if Kylie can do it. She'll have the Amazon boost and her team are going all out with physical variants of the Xmas album.

I’m a huge Kylie fan but haven’t pre-ordered the ‘new’ Christmas album.

Ordered all 3 formats of the single though. I bought the original one on CD but didn’t bother with the Snow Queen edition.

Considering it’s never even been top 10 in either of the previous editions, personally I don’t think it has a chance of No.1 but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

17 minutes ago, stebags said:

Considering it’s never even been top 10 in either of the previous editions, personally I don’t think it has a chance of No.1 but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

It’s only since then that Kylie has really perfected how to get a number 1 album - and overall album sales have declined - whereas Kylie is now able to get a large number of physicals when she tries.

That’s not to say it will definitely be number 1, but I will be quite shocked if it doesn’t reach a new peak.

49 minutes ago, stebags said:

I’m a huge Kylie fan but haven’t pre-ordered the ‘new’ Christmas album.

Ordered all 3 formats of the single though. I bought the original one on CD but didn’t bother with the Snow Queen edition.

Considering it’s never even been top 10 in either of the previous editions, personally I don’t think it has a chance of No.1 but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

I’m the same I’ve pre-ordered all 3 versions of Xmas but I’ll just stream the album instead.

I wonder if most have done that instead? Although it seems to be selling well on Amazon it hasn’t left the top 70 in bestsellers in CD/Vinyl so that’s a good sign

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by Mr. C. Joel

I think an issue some have with the annual Christmas invasion is that artists and labels pretty much hold off on releasing any music for the entire last quarter of each year nowadays because just as a song starts gaining traction or momentum in the charts in Oct or Nov, it then gets swallowed by the Christmas rush and has to try harder to regain that momentum again in January after a 6 week hiatus of not being played, streamed or discussed as part of the public consciousness and potential listeners or fans just move onto other more brand new music released in January. It means the non-Christmas popular music calendar has all but shrunk by a quarter. Is that a good thing?

Personally as much as i love Kylie I do think its a dirty trick to promote the album but leave off the song they are actively pushing just to push the song more the week after

Like couldn't it of not been added to physicals (maybe not streaming for the first week artists alter the streaming versions all the time)

While you're all arguing over Christmas I hope all of you are streaming Kylie o

7 minutes ago, 777666jason said:

Personally as much as i love Kylie I do think its a dirty trick to promote the album but leave off the song they are actively pushing just to push the song more the week after

Like couldn't it of not been added to physicals (maybe not streaming for the first week artists alter the streaming versions all the time)

It's on all the Amazon physical variants so I guess people can just buy the Amazon physicals if they want Xmas on it?

I do think people are going to buy the album and then realise Xmas isn't on there though.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by Mr. C. Joel

1 hour ago, Big Mistake said:

So whats the solution? Disqualify it just because it annoys some people

My solution for Christmas songs would be to remove streaming from the ones that are over 3 years old. It can still contribute to the singles chart just with paid for sales the way they do with certain compilations. Best solution in my opinion and it would help regular songs become hits in December

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by Hadji

1 hour ago, stebags said:

I’m a huge Kylie fan but haven’t pre-ordered the ‘new’ Christmas album.

Ordered all 3 formats of the single though. I bought the original one on CD but didn’t bother with the Snow Queen edition.

Considering it’s never even been top 10 in either of the previous editions, personally I don’t think it has a chance of No.1 but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

There are 9 versions so far plus 2 versions that will be released as ‘pop-up’ shop exclusives so I’d be shocked if it doesn’t have a good chance of going to #1 especially considering how her recent albums have performed and the fact she has the Amazon song and promo on Strictly and The One Show and headlining Jingle Bell Ball.

58 minutes ago, stebags said:

Considering it’s never even been top 10 in either of the previous editions, personally I don’t think it has a chance of No.1 but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

I don't see what could stop her, unless Taylor drops 20k of variants or something. I can't see a new release on the schedule bigger that week.

23 minutes ago, Hadji said:

My solution for Christmas songs would be to remove streaming from the ones that are over 3 years old. It can still contribute to the singles chart just with paid for sales the way they do with certain compilations. Best solution in my opinion and it would help regular songs become hits in December

Its a bit different a streaming sale for a christmas song to a song not contributing its streams to a random compilation which isnt artist or cast specific though 🤔

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by 777666jason

31 minutes ago, Hadji said:

My solution for Christmas songs would be to remove streaming from the ones that are over 3 years old. It can still contribute to the singles chart just with paid for sales the way they do with certain compilations. Best solution in my opinion and it would help regular songs become hits in December

If its popular in December then it should chart whether its a Christmas song or a song from the 1960s… i dont see why these songs should be removed just to change how the chart looks for some people…

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Big Mistake

3 minutes ago, Big Mistake said:

If its popular in December then it should chart whether its a Christmas song or a song from the 1960s… i dont see why these songs should be removed just to change how it looks…

So you’re happy for Wham! to get Christmas number 1 every year are you? If you do, you need to give your head a wobble. I used to get excited about the race for Christmas number 1 but now, I can’t be asked

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by Hadji

5 minutes ago, Hadji said:

So you’re happy for Wham! to get Christmas number 1 every year are you? If you do, you need to give your head a wobble

Well clearly wham is the most popular and most played song in that time period so rightfully it’s at #1! Even on ACR it’s still managing #1 so in my books it deserves its spot there! It may be tiresome having it there over and over but the charts represent the most popular, sought after music each week so if wham is that every December then so be it

I’d actually take Wham! over an October #1 hanging on by default or an Amazon exclusive that most of the public hasn’t heard and can’t even access.

There always seems to be this idea that we’re missing out on an exciting chart due to Christmas songs, but in reality it would largely be the same chart we’ve had for the last month with poorer numbers. Streaming patterns just aren’t all that exciting whatever rules you make.

Yeah, why can't we have the power to delete songs we don't like from the chart?

I'd probably be doing it all year if I could!

Id hazard a guess if majority rules count Ordinary would of long gone if we at buzzjack were allowed to delete songs we dont like 🤣

22 minutes ago, Hadji said:

So you’re happy for Wham! to get Christmas number 1 every year are you? If you do, you need to give your head a wobble. I used to get excited about the race for Christmas number 1 but now, I can’t be asked

Again, if its popular it should be number one, 10 years ago it was Fairytale of New York in the top 5 every year and it has become less popular each year, same might happen with Wham and Mariah, but meanwhile you just have to accept that they’re the most popular songs every Christmas.

 

18 minutes ago, conorw said:

Well clearly wham is the most popular and most played song in that time period so rightfully it’s at #1! Even on ACR it’s still managing #1 so in my books it deserves its spot there! It may be tiresome having it there over and over but the charts represent the most popular, sought after music each week so if wham is that every December then so be it

Totally agree, the charts are not made to look good, they are made to reflect whats popular.

To play devil's advocate, is the notion of songs getting sabotaged by Christmas even really true? I think we get a little side-tracked by the positions and don't look at the numbers, which I can bet is what the labels are doing. I see a pretty meagre dip that pales in comparison to what comes after in January when less people are listening to music anyway, if anything that's the thing that would be more pressing

(I'm using this example because it's late enough in the year that I don't think Spotify Wrapped or any associated end of year festivities would be propelling this song, which might push it down some chart positions, but won't necessarily take many streams away from it)

If there is a problem, it's not with Christmas, but just the end of the year, because I think we'd like to stop and smell the roses for a while and not perpetually feel obligated to cycle our music playlists 52 weeks a year for eternity. I love that things calm down a bit in December, and it lets me look back on the year that was, which again is more statistical noise that makes it feel like nothing's happening than Christmas. I welcome everyone to check out the ARIA Charts in a few weeks time where (I believe) there will be no Wham!, no Mariah, (maybe Laufey instead?), and look at how all the movement will be not just stagnant, but actively negative because all the kinda old songs will temporarily leap ahead of the newer ones.

But then I guess I don't know what the general aim is. Do we want chart movement just cuz? Do we want to hear new music we like, except we're not content with it unless everyone else is also listening to it? Or is it just this petty annoyance that these weird exception cases that shouldn't count are ruining all kinds of interesting chart records without even trying? It sounds all well and good to want chart movement, but as someone whose interest in charts is predicated on letting accurate data do its thing (it's why we care more about the Official Chart than any 'fake' charts, right?), I find it hard to join the chart movement, movement.