The ACR rule was very simple - if your song has been in the chart for 10+ weeks and its declined in consumption for 3 weeks in a row, then it gets put on ACR. So why on earth have the OCC decided to factor in market consumption into the formula? Like I don't understand why they've made chart calculations so complicated.

Labels naturally want their songs to stay as high as possible so the OCC probably put that rule in place so they don't complain about a song going to ACR as a result of the overall market dropping alongside the song. It's stupid but from a business perspective if you had a number one song you'd want to do everything in your power to bend the rules enough so that your domination can continue!

This isn't something they've 'added', it's always how the rule has worked!

(I understand it in concept but I do think that a rise by less than the market should count as a decline in the same way that a decline by less than the market counts as a rise, that would probably reduce the number of songs greatly overstaying their welcomes on SCR).

I think the ACR rules were designed to give the "benefit of the doubt" to the effect of market changes, so we get the double lock whereby a decrease by less than a market counts as an increase, but an increase by any amount (whether more or less than the market) also counts as an increase.

The first of these makes sense if you consider that some weeks are going to have lower overall streams - in the case of the week just gone, the bank holiday was perhaps the main reason - and it wouldn't make sense to penalise everything for decreasing. The second is the more contentious one for me - especially in weeks like the one we're coming into which has five working days compared to four in the previous bank holiday week, so I would expect the market to be up and a lot of songs which had been in decline to increase slightly. I can see why they applied this part of the rule back in 2017, as they didn't want songs that were taking off in November / December to be disadvantaged by Christmas songs swelling the market ahead of them. However as there are now the January resets to take care of that, I don't think there's any reason to keep this part of the rule in place. I think an increase by less than the market should count as a decrease, or at least an increase that is less than a fair percentage (e.g. 2.5%) where this is also less than the market.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the ACR rules were drawn up in an environment when sales were still significant and the #1 single would typically sell over 15k in downloads. Sales would generally rise to a peak and fall away more quickly, and were part of the ACR equation until 2019. Even at that point when the calculation switched to streams only, playlists such as Hot Hits had more sway on streaming habits than they do now, so there would be more of a finite period where songs were getting a tangible push before easing off. Whereas now, changes in the streams of a song from one week to the next are less likely to be affected by this kind of cooling-off effect than they are by changes in the weather. This time of year in particular, with the weather generally improving as well as the effects of the bank holidays, has been an issue for the ACR rules for several years now, with many prominent cases of songs continuing to dodge ACR until well into the summer. I think the rules are no longer fit for purpose and changes are overdue, perhaps more radical than the one I suggested above, although I do think that alone would significantly reduce the number of songs outstaying their welcome.

Something needs to be done because why are 2026 songs going on acr before old songs-the very thing acr was introduced in the first place to get rid of older songs is backfiring

They should also make it that you need a 50% increase to go back to SCR like it used to be, not 25%.

27 minutes ago, Dobbo said:

They should also make it that you need a 50% increase to go back to SCR like it used to be, not 25%.

These songs are not the problem, it's the songs that decrease so little that the market fluctuation eliminates the decline. It creates a DCL-DCL-increase-DCL-increase-DCL-DCL-increase type of pattern where the true consumption doesn't really even matter any more.

10 hours ago, Henessy Lake said:

Something needs to be done because why are 2026 songs going on acr before old songs-the very thing acr was introduced in the first place to get rid of older songs is backfiring

Probably more that the 2026 songs just arnt clicking with the General Public or they dont actually care

Just look at all the songs that are actually charting nostalgia seems bigger than anything this year

Heck if it wasnt for the 3 track rule we would probably have at least 10 MJ tracks in the top 40

MJ wouldn't be there without the movie.

I actually don’t think I agree anymore that people aren’t connecting with current music as much as I think people are lazier than ever with seeking new music out. This is evidenced by how long it takes some songs to be a hit - Rein Me In doesn’t sound any different to how it did at the start of its run. They want it to come to them on TikTok or a movie because Spotify doesn’t really encourage new music. You create a playlist, you stick to putting that on every day and if you’re not actively searching for new stuff, then you continue to regurgitate that same material until a format like TikTok forces something else upon you.

9 minutes ago, Sour Candy said:

MJ wouldn't be there without the movie.

2 minutes ago, Jessie Where said:

But it is not just a case of old music doing well, it's very current and actively promoted because of the movie - hence wouldn't put it in the same category of just random tracks getting viral resets such as Lush Life, The One That Got Away, Fleetwood Mac tracks etc.

Edited Sunday at 11:062 days by Sour Candy

I think this rule should be for songs that have only charted for a certain period of time. Once those songs reach a certain amount of weeks, the rule shouldn't apply to them, giving newer songs a chance.

Edited Sunday at 18:202 days by DanielCarey

ACR should be on a sliding scale rather than on/off. I don't care if it makes it more complicated to understand.

Sam Fender and Rema are great examples of persistent ACR-dodging. What is the record number of times that a song has dodged it?

Must be Rein Me In now surely...

On 10/05/2026 at 11:45, RobBot said:

I actually don’t think I agree anymore that people aren’t connecting with current music as much as I think people are lazier than ever with seeking new music out. This is evidenced by how long it takes some songs to be a hit - Rein Me In doesn’t sound any different to how it did at the start of its run. They want it to come to them on TikTok or a movie because Spotify doesn’t really encourage new music. You create a playlist, you stick to putting that on every day and if you’re not actively searching for new stuff, then you continue to regurgitate that same material until a format like TikTok forces something else upon you.

Facts. And it's a trap I pretty much fell into too (not quite the same as I was listening to some new releases, but usually after I'd heard them elsewhere or from artists I already knew well). But for me, someone who all my friends tell me is on the pulse with new music, to get lazy and just add a few songs to my playlist every month, I'm 99% sure that is exactly what is happening the the majority of the public.

I've changed my habits now to allow me to discover much more of the brilliant new music that's out there... But I think it's easy to see why the only songs that take off really are those that become viral on tiktok or are featured prominently in films/tv. You just end up with people in a cycle of listening to the same stuff at the top of their playlist or sticking on a curated playlist which basically includes the most popular songs already and BAM everything else struggles to break through. At least with sales, a song will generally only be purchased once - here we're talking about people probably listening to the same songs whenever they put on their playlists for months!

Peru's ACR dodging felt like a never-ending joke at the time.

2 hours ago, adrianreavill83 said:

Sam Fender and Rema are great examples of persistent ACR-dodging. What is the record number of times that a song has dodged it?

Depends on the definition - if we're talking about the whole Top 100, it has some way to go:

Songs with most weeks in the UK Top 100 before first* falling to ACR

Since its introduction in July 2017

 

1| 53 Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence (2024) ~ *

2| 49 Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners - Evergreen (2023) ~ *

3| 47 Sam Fender & Olivia Dean - Rein Me In (2025) +

 

~ non-consecutive weeks

* after being reset to SCR and before falling back to ACR, as their first tenures on ACR began by default

Songs with most weeks to date in the UK Top 100 while on SCR

Since its introduction in July 2017

 

1| 56 Pinkfong - Baby Shark (2018: 31; 2020: 5; 2023: 20)

2| 53 Disturbed - The Sound Of Silence (2024)

3| 51 Harry Styles - As It Was (2022: 18; 2023: 22; 2024: 7; 2026: 4)

---

However for the Top 40, by the first definition it's already there, and by the second definition it'll be there in a couple of weeks. Having said that, I don't think 'Calm Down' and 'Rein Me In' are the worst examples of ACR dodging - the former had its 3 declines to go to ACR immediately after peaking at #3, and the latter is still at its peak (in any case, I'm not keen on songs not being #1 just because of ACR). I think the worst offenders are those which had long runs on SCR to keep them in the Top 40 after they had already peaked.

In the last list I've given the number of post-peak (pp) weeks Top 40 while on SCR - the worst offenders for this, with 25+ are highlighted in red:

Songs with most weeks in the UK Top 40 before first falling to ACR

Since its introduction in July 2017

 

1| 46 Sam Fender & Olivia Dean - Rein Me In (2025) +

2| 41 Rema - Calm Down (2022)

3| 30 Jax Jones featuring MNEK - Where Did You Go? (2022)

Songs with most weeks to date in the UK Top 40 while on SCR

Since its introduction in July 2017

 

1| 47 / 37 pp: Harry Styles - As It Was (2022: 18; 2023: 22; 2024: 6; 2026: 1)

2=| 46 / 36 pp: Benson Boone - Beautiful Things (2024: 19; 2025: 27)

2=| 46 / 0 pp: Sam Fender & Olivia Dean - Rein Me In (2025) +

4| 41 / 3 pp: Rema - Calm Down (2022)

5| 40 / 14 pp: Glass Animals - Heat Waves (2021: 17+11; 2023: 12)

6| 39 / 26 pp: Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer (2019: 1; 2023: 15+6; 2024: 11+6)

7| 37 / 21 pp: George Ezra - Green Green Grass (2022: 17; 2023: 20)

8| 36 / 26 pp: Teddy Swims - Bad Dreams (2024: 13; 2025: 23)

9| 35 / 9 pp: Teddy Swims - The Door (2024: 29; 2025: 6)

10| 34 / 17 pp: Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (2024: 7; 2025: 27)