24 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

I didn’t enjoy those type of charts with 6 weeks runs and inflated high NEs simply due to held back demand, it was very fake.

It may not fully return to how things once were, even with a recurrent-songs rule, but it would at least make clear which new releases are genuinely popular at any given time.

The same logic applies to the album charts: having Abba, Fleetwood Mac, or Queen greatest-hits albums chart indefinitely simply because of long-term streaming doesn’t really reflect current listening trends. In effect, it’s like albums charting because our parents are playing them at home rather than because they represent what’s new or culturally current.

27 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

I didn’t enjoy those type of charts with 6 weeks runs and inflated high NEs simply due to held back demand, it was very fake.

I see more representation of new artists on the airplay,

Just now, Big Mistake said:

It may not fully return to how things once were, even with a recurrent-songs rule, but it would at least make clear which new releases are genuinely popular at any given time.

The same logic applies to the album charts: having Abba, Fleetwood Mac, or Queen greatest-hits albums chart indefinitely simply because of long-term streaming doesn’t really reflect current listening trends. In effect, it’s like albums charting because our parents are playing them at home rather than because they represent what’s new or culturally current.

1 minute ago, Big Mistake said:

It may not fully return to how things once were, even with a recurrent-songs rule, but it would at least make clear which new releases are genuinely popular at any given time.

The same logic applies to the album charts: having Abba, Fleetwood Mac, or Queen greatest-hits albums chart indefinitely simply because of long-term streaming doesn’t really reflect current listening trends. In effect, it’s like albums charting because our parents are playing them at home rather than because they represent what’s new or culturally current.

It does exactly that I.e. reflecting current listening trends from actually a wide demographic

I think the biggest issue is Greatest Hits albums should be removed from the chart and put on the already existing Compilation Album chart.

The way they’ve done the rule where the top 2 songs are weighted down in line with the rest of the album has essentially rigged it for compilation albums to bloat the chart.

They already moved soundtracks to that chart, but I think soundtracks have more of a place on the chart than Greatest Hits. ~35% of the Top 50 is currently Greatest Hits and they’ll never leave.

I also think a recurrence rule like Billboard is more appropriate than ACR. 10 weeks is far too short to declare a song too old and it means established chart records are nearly impossible to be broken.

Edited February 8Feb 8 by aidan755
Added info

I’m totally torn by this topic, on one hand I think the chart should reflect the most popular songs of the week, that’s the way it’s always been. On the other hand you can see the way the chart is going, there are more and more older song coming back on the chart and songs lasting years and years. The worry is that eventually it becomes totally overwhelmed with old song over current songs. It’s a difficult one, I think Christmas is getting a bit silly now, where almost the entire top 40 is old Christmas songs and I say this as someone who LOVES Christmas music.

30 minutes ago, aidan755 said:

I think the biggest issue is Greatest Hits albums should be removed from the chart and put on the already existing Compilation Album chart.

The way they’ve done the rule where the top 2 songs are weighted down in line with the rest of the album has essentially rigged it for compilation albums to bloat the chart.

They already moved soundtracks to that chart, but I think soundtracks have more of a place on the chart than Greatest Hits. ~35% of the Top 50 is currently Greatest Hits and they’ll never leave.

I also think a recurrence rule like Billboard is more appropriate than ACR. 10 weeks is far too short to declare a song too old and it means established chart records are nearly impossible to be broken.

Totally agree, Greatest hits albums should be on compilation charts, especially in this era where their streams being artificially inflated by the current chart rules where even streams from older tracks are counted towards greatest hits albums..

I think there needs to be two charts, a singles chart only and a songs chart that incorporates everything without any rules. Once a song has been charting for say a year or 18 months it gets removed from the singles, but likewise if an album track gets pushed as a single it can transfer across.

Additionally and quite controversial perhaps I think AirPlay is needed for the chart in the absence of people buying records. Unlike the US it should be a select bunch of stations that focus on playlisting new music routinely and it only has a short duration to the chart like a couple of months so it doesn’t get stale. I think record labels would jump at this as a way to push something up the charts and make things more competitive. ACR also needs to be changed so that the drop isn’t so harsh for one and secondly there shouldn’t be any dodge rules, like give them 12 weeks to peak and then if it’s made the top 10 then that’s it. No resets or second reruns unless it’s going to actually repeak, if a song still manages to hang around for months in the top 10 as it’s that big then so be it.

Albums are also a mess, a lower ratio for streams and remove the downweighting rules. The greatest hits don’t need removing, the problem is the occ double count any streams from any act toward a greatest hits even if it’s not even been listened to so that just needs to stop. Also soundtracks should be brought back into the albums as well.

Yes, there should be recurrence rules put in place ...

... to replace the current mess of the ACR system

On 08/02/2026 at 11:35, reissus123 said:

So even more manipulation, diminishing further the representation of popularity

that's how i explained it.... whats the point if 80% of the people streaming Last Christmas are the same people every year? does this represent sales? If we want to have a sales chart then that's not what it is.... Let's create a streaming chart and let go of all ACR rules etc..... And how does this compare to older eras, and legendary artists like The Beatles and Westlife?

On 09/02/2026 at 07:16, Charis said:

that's how i explained it.... whats the point if 80% of the people streaming Last Christmas are the same people every year? does this represent sales? If we want to have a sales chart then that's not what it is.... Let's create a streaming chart and let go of all ACR rules etc..... And how does this compare to older eras, and legendary artists like The Beatles and Westlife?

It doesn't compare, that's the whole point., It's apples and oranges. You cannot compare the pre-streaming era to the streaming era, they are different beasts, they are the same in name only. You need two sets of "records"/achievements - prestreaming and during streaming

2 hours ago, braindeadpj said:

It doesn't compare, that's the whole point., It's apples and oranges. You cannot compare the pre-streaming era to the streaming era, they are different beasts, they are the same in name only. You need two sets of "records"/achievements - prestreaming and during streaming

Then thats exactly what I am saying, but thats not the case… songs of today get the same certification awards, no1’s have the same meaning, official singles chart have the same meaning but its not…. Also how about artists existing in both eras (like the legendary Westlife)?!? They are either killed or revived. The inconsistency is there and it doesnt look like this will be settled in any way.

On 09/02/2026 at 12:16, Charis said:

that's how i explained it.... whats the point if 80% of the people streaming Last Christmas are the same people every year? does this represent sales? If we want to have a sales chart then that's not what it is.... Let's create a streaming chart and let go of all ACR rules etc..... And how does this compare to older eras, and legendary artists like The Beatles and Westlife?

Did you use the words Beatles/Westlife/legendary in the same sentence?

On 08/02/2026 at 09:58, aidan755 said:

I think the biggest issue is Greatest Hits albums should be removed from the chart and put on the already existing Compilation Album chart.

The way they’ve done the rule where the top 2 songs are weighted down in line with the rest of the album has essentially rigged it for compilation albums to bloat the chart.

They already moved soundtracks to that chart, but I think soundtracks have more of a place on the chart than Greatest Hits. ~35% of the Top 50 is currently Greatest Hits and they’ll never leave.

I also think a recurrence rule like Billboard is more appropriate than ACR. 10 weeks is far too short to declare a song too old and it means established chart records are nearly impossible to be broken.

The reason they stick around for so long is a bulk of the British public’s music taste is so set in stone they won’t try anything new which is sad - I couldn’t imagine not keeping up with new music

1 minute ago, Boymetworld91 said:

The reason they stick around for so long is a bulk of the British public’s music taste is so set in stone they won’t try anything new which is sad - I couldn’t imagine not keeping up with new music

Generally it’s 12-35 yo who keep up with new music after that they listen to older music or to the music of their youth!

Just now, Steve201 said:

Generally it’s 12-35 yo who keep up with new music after that they listen to older music or to the music of their youth!

Maybe in the past, and maybe I’ll buck the trend but I’m 34 and going to make sure I discover new music forever - don’t get me wrong I still get nostalgic for the music of my youth and listen to a healthy mix of that alongside the new music

Just now, Boymetworld91 said:

Maybe in the past, and maybe I’ll buck the trend but I’m 34 and going to make sure I discover new music forever - don’t get me wrong I still get nostalgic for the music of my youth and listen to a healthy mix of that alongside the new music

I’m the same, I’m 43 and listen to the Future artists show on R1 and also working through old albums from the 60s to fill in the gaps in music history.

Just now, Steve201 said:

I’m the same, I’m 43 and listen to the Future artists show on R1 and also working through old albums from the 60s to fill in the gaps in music history.

That’s fantastic, I created quite a few of the Wikipedia pages for the top 10 singles charts going all the way back, and that got me listening to a lot of older music I hadn’t discovered

On 08/02/2026 at 10:08, Cowboystyle said:

I’m totally torn by this topic, on one hand I think the chart should reflect the most popular songs of the week, that’s the way it’s always been. On the other hand you can see the way the chart is going, there are more and more older song coming back on the chart and songs lasting years and years. The worry is that eventually it becomes totally overwhelmed with old song over current songs. It’s a difficult one, I think Christmas is getting a bit silly now, where almost the entire top 40 is old Christmas songs and I say this as someone who LOVES Christmas music.

I feel like this too, i think i would i would like something on the lines of a 20 week cap that a song can spend on the singles chart and then move to another chart a bit like the way Australia does it.

Streaming is a hard one to fix, with many of the songs sticking around forever in the singles chart is down to playlisting and songs getting played and played that way rather than someone actually seeking out the song and as a result songs by other artists not as heavily featured on playlists dont get a chance to shine. I dont know if its possible to break down streaming in such detail but songs that actually get directly requested should gain more points than a song just been playlisted.

With albums i think a big issue is how the streams are calculated with greatest hits albums for example i think the rules on that need to be tightened.

9 hours ago, Steve201 said:

Did you use the words Beatles/Westlife/legendary in the same sentence?

Yes.

Which one of them is not legendary?

The ones in the EU x

10 hours ago, Charis said:

Yes.

Which one of them is not legendary?

Take no notice of them westlife will always be legendary 🙌 only 2 acts have had more number 1s ever (joint with 2 other acts)