Where is evidence that Amazon sales count towards the Official chart?

 

 

As far as I know, Amazon downloads count for the Singles chart but not the Album chart at the moment.

Does anyone actually know what was sold on cassette?

 

Thought the only you could buy them now was in charity shops!

I do actually think there's an argument for adding airplay. Basing it purely on sales does seem a weird concept to me in some ways... for instance, say this week I buy Just Dance, love it and listen to it constantly for about three months. That counts as one sale to just this week's chart. I also buy that Shontelle song, having never heard it but buying it out of interest, I hate it and never listen again. That counts as one sale to this week's chart. Obviously, I much prefer Just Dance, and yet, the chart counts my like for that song as exactly the same as my like for the Shontelle song. It just seems weird.

 

(And please, no comments about how I must be stupid to buy a song I've never heard before :P )

I do actually think there's an argument for adding airplay. Basing it purely on sales does seem a weird concept to me in some ways... for instance, say this week I buy Just Dance, love it and listen to it constantly for about three months. That counts as one sale to just this week's chart. I also buy that Shontelle song, having never heard it but buying it out of interest, I hate it and never listen again. That counts as one sale to this week's chart. Obviously, I much prefer Just Dance, and yet, the chart counts my like for that song as exactly the same as my like for the Shontelle song. It just seems weird.

 

(And please, no comments about how I must be stupid to buy a song I've never heard before :P )

That's not the same thing. Adding airplay gives radio the power and is based on what audience the station playing the song gets. So anything on the Radio 1 or 2 playlist would get a big boost. I think what you mean is streaming, which I find a bit shifty anyway, I could leave a song on loop for 24 hours a day all week, which is a bit unfair.

 

I think charts should always be based on sales, I don't really like the idea the USA uses.

That's not the same thing. Adding airplay gives radio the power and is based on what audience the station playing the song gets.

True, I don't think there's a single perfect way of compiling a chart. But I do think, in some ways, airplay is a better indicator of the more popular hits than sales - obviously, stations do have to play what's popular, especially commercial stations, otherwise their listener nos/revenue will obviously willl fall. If airplay was included, I would want to see a greater weighting towards actual number of plays instead of audience impressions, which would reduce the impact of Radio 1/2.

 

I definitely don't want streaming incorporated... the proper services like Yahoo and AOL aren't really that used anyway, so it wouldn't have much impact. Unless YouTube was included, but that would be really weird (for one thing, where would the definition of a music video stop? Might we get randomers with too much time on their hands getting into the chart? :puke2: ).

In America having airplay count towards the chart makes more sense because there is no national station and the local stations are more influenced by listeners with interactive charts and lots of things like that.

 

But in the UK, Radio 1's dominance would make songs that nobody actually likes into hits because of their politics for playing music.

Aren't our charts suppose to reflect whats being bought by the public?? fairly? For what reason should they go 'banning' entries whether they be physical or otherwise??

 

Did you miss my 'woot' smileys? :)

 

Just because some people don't 'agree' with Charity or Xfactor releases (for reasons personal to themselves), they are popular and people will buy them, and enjoy listening to them. The sales for these records speak for themselves...

 

I'll give you one out of the above three, anyway... namely 'people will buy them'. IMO, as to popularity, the songs are rapidly forgotten, and as for enjoying listening to them, I would guess that most people who buy charity singles, only do so to feel as if they've done *something* to help, actually listening to them more than once is not a necessary part of the deal.

 

I don't think it should become a downloads-only chart, though as someone else mentioned, it's looking as though it will become something like 99% downloads. My major concern is that it could become an iTunes chart, as they seem to almost have a monopoly on downloads.

 

They are by far the largest download site, that's true, but AIUI they only make up 50-60% of the market, and Amazon, as a well-known brand name, should increase their market share significant throughout this year.

 

i don't see the point of them adding airplay cause that will just make it the same as the chart on Hit40UK, so there is no need for us to have two of the same charts.

airplay will never be added.

 

I bet a lot of Americans thought that at one time! :P

I bet a lot of Americans thought that at one time! :P

unfortunately / fortunately (depending on the point of view!) airplay has counted on the Hot 100 chart since it began in 1958...

 

Where is evidence that Amazon sales count towards the Official chart?

The OCC have confirmed in an email to a poster at another board that digital sales, both tracks and albums, now count towards the chart.

 

i don't see the point of them adding airplay cause that will just make it the same as the chart on Hit40UK, so there is no need for us to have two of the same charts.

Hardly. Hit40uk is just a reflection of what Independant Stations play, and as they all play the same stuff...it ain`t a full reflection of the stuff that Radio One/Two etc play. Again Hit40uk uses the top 10 download sales, and only the 11-40 part of the chart is 50/50 sales/airplay making it utterly daft.

 

Airplay will never be added to the UK Official Chart, you can be sure of that. These days it would just slow the charts down even more, than they have become since downloads began to be included. The rule would be better, if all physicals/downloads were released on the same week...and not releasing physicals weeks after the download version!

 

Even though that said, the download chart will soon take over anyway. One thing that Hit40uk have got correct, as they (like we said) already feature the download singles top ten sales chart. In an ideal world for Independant Radio, they would have been allowed to include the complete top 40 downloads without any airplay. Unfortunately the OCC would not agree to this. Perhaps knowing that the physical is already dead meat, and it won`t be long before the only singles chart is the download chart. It`s a shame that it is monopolized by iTunes, as the biggest factor. But perhaps that might change, with more download sites having a surge of late.

i don't think it's a good idea adding airplay to the UK charts..

just look at the US charts with all its urban/hip hop radio station dominance leading to these kind of songs staying in the charts for ages without selling many downloads!!!!

 

airplay doesn't reflect people's taste,it reflects radio executives' tastes ..... Only sales reflect the public's real choices....

Airplay should never be added. At the moment the rules are pretty simple. A sale is a sale is a sale. If airplay gets added someone has to decide what weight to give it. Obviously a play at 3 am on Radio Orkney doesn't reach as many people as a play at 8.15 am omn Radio 1 so you have to adjust for that - as the airplay charts do. But that still leaves a decision to be made on how airplay compares with sales. That decision can make a difference to the eventual outcome of the chart so it becomes a made-up chart.