gooddelta

It’s a really good track, I can see it doing well. Shame I switched from it in Club earlier in the year but intrigued to see what people think. My entry is six minutes but doesn’t really kick in until about two. I really hope people don’t only check the first minute of it and skip as that part is very much not representative.

The article makes some fair points and generally The Guardian is a reliable source but it definitely is undermined by that 60k error. I hope they correct that because it makes the numbers sound way more pitiful than reality. Readers will think 1 stream is equivalent to 1 download.

The early days were something else.

A full THIRD of semi finalists will DNQ! Get ready for heartbreak as long songs get in and long streaks end in tears.

Norma is the most surprising pass for me recently for sure. She had been entered a few times before recently to some success, plus the song sampled not just an iconic No.1 but Maneater also came 2nd in BJSC and aren’t big points attached to sampling big BJSC hits too? Maybe it still got under 25 though but it’s just such a recognisable sample that it almost sold the song all by itself (I thought it was good and voted for it as I love that melody!)

I’m quite surprised Eras is continuing, I can only assume they make some profit on the vinyl and hardback book releases. What’s left then post-2007 - landfill indie, club banger era, tropical house 😂 The A*Teens song on Disc 1 was on another fairly recent pop compilation I’m sure, and certainly on a TOTP album in 2001. But then again pop was very well compiled at the time, not sure there are many rarities that were not on any UK compilations. Maybe Moi Lolita by Alizée would have been a nice one.

I also wouldn't include any New Music Friday playlists for the record, as it's so transient with full turnover each week, only the very popular curated genre playlists where songs sit on them for entire contest cycles. Btw, I have used OBSESSED before too, or at least tried to with Fleeting... 😂

Maybe 'prominent playlists with over 200,000 followers', which would cover those two and the popular Planet Rave, for example, which I believe is well used for sourcing, and All New Indie (not sure if there are alt bloc alternatives!). I do believe it gives an inbuilt advantage when lots of people are using the same playlist sources that have only a few new songs added each month/contest cycle, which is how I presume so many people come across the same stuff that on the surface feels obscure. Having said that, even if you just gave 'prominent playlist inclusion' something like 5-7 points for example, a song would have to still fall foul in other ways like multiple confirmations, appearing in loads of charts, online hype etc. 5-7 points would never be enough alone.

I'll get the vinyl for this. Have got all these on CD multiple times but not got all of them on vinyl. Some that are nice to see, like Life Ain't Easy and Halfway Around The World. I think most have been covered by Yearbooks, Extras and the Millennium series (save for 1996 stuff).

Sounds fair for any artist quadruple confirmed. Although I've never heard the song. It's on OBSESSED and All New Pop though ofc. I still think the framework should have some points attached to OBSESSED personally in the next update, I feel it's very relevant to 2026 entry sourcing in terms of many people hearing the same stuff and songs therefore having a headstart on recognition. Its a very good song though, it reminds me of Sky Ferreira and Zowie (an artist I came 2nd with a very long time ago). Very early 10s vibe to it.

Intriguing mix, I love hearing what we could have had. Some good parts from Nadine and Nicola on this.

I think for me it's being that much of an effortless earworm while being such a simple song. Seeing it live was great too as the whole thing could be quite easily recereated with his loop pedal, it's essentially a very simple backing track loop but I find it quite hypnotic to listen to, especially as it builds and layers towards the end. Obviously it did rip off the production of Cheap Thrills (and I guess No Scrubs in the melody as they had to be credited, although I didn't even pick up on that at all at the time), but there is just something about it I have never got bored of. I think he's said in interviews he was expecting Castle On The Hill to be the bigger hit and was surprised this took off more than that. I suspect he was hedging his bets just in case one wasn't liked, going with both a classic Ed kind of song and a song that fit the charts of the time. Of course both were gigantic in the end, but it was his heyday and he could have released anything. However the fact they both hung around so long and led to the album smashing records and causing a whole change to the chart rules is testament to the quality of the two songs imo. I still love that album.

Tbf I definitely do get the disdain for Perfect as it's quite corny. Although I still like it, it's worn off me since release, I just don't rate much of the rest of this list (I only love my top two). I'll always defend Shape Of You as a top class pop song though. It was overplayed for years but I hardly hear it now so have reintroduced it into my own semi-regular rotation.

Why is it all men apart from Kyla! 01 Ed Sheeran - Shape of You 02 The Weeknd - Blinding Lights 03 Ed Sheeran - Perfect 04 Harry Styles - As It Was 05 The Weeknd - Starboy (feat. Daft Punk) 06 Drake - One Dance (feat. WizKid & Kyla) 07 The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber - STAY 08 The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather 09 Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved 10 Post Malone & Swae Lee - Sunflower

They're on pages 8 and 9 of this forum. Here's the results:

Great No.1. Love In Rewind was a highlight in a poor year. Lejla and Pokušaj are my other favourites, although Call Me was fun in a naff way. Very odd entry to come from an Eastern country though, feels more like a dated schlager from Scandinavia.

Klaxons. It's decent but I prefer the original (and the other two songs remaining).

I prefer Kids.

I've always listened to everything in full at least once, in every contest I've ever entered on BuzzJack. You just never know where a song is going to go, if something will grow or get better as it goes along. And it feels fair to the poster who has submitted it. But I certainly did struggle with some of our entries over half an hour long, and personally would wonder if it's fair that I'm asking for 10 times more of a voter's time investment than a typical three minute pop entry, as many voters will want to listen to everything in full or multiple times. I don't mind them on a personal level though, as Julian says they can go on in the background, but I'm not going to be giving something my full focus for 40 minutes. My longest was just over 13 minutes (Gebroken Spiegels) and I felt ok about it as it was a rock and classical track with sections that veered all over the place, but I'm not sure I'd go over that unless the song was absolutely extraordinary and full of twists and turns. Although it seems lots of people skip through them anyway so maybe no need to worry and just let their target audience enjoy them. I suppose if we started getting loads and loads of long songs (which is rare, there are often not more than two or three per semi) then I would have to start cutting stuff off after 15 minutes. But I don't see it becoming a trend.

There's a new Virtual Boy Nintendo Switch Online update too with two new games, but more importantly for me an option to change the colour filter. The red colour gave me a headache playing so I tried Virtual Boy Wario with the Super Game Boy filter on it last night and it's so much easier to play.

Reconfirmed, have found a really grabby song with an amazing video that I absolutely adored on first play (read: 25th in the semi).

voted Dane, it's a bad song

It definitely is irritating. Because sometimes the ‘full version’ is then released months or years later and if you’re a collector it’s more to spend out on. I understand that artists are perfectionists and want to work on the digital version right up until it goes live but it’s not great for the consumer having a potentially inferior version (as presumably any changes are made to improve things!). Still, so many vinyl plants have shut down that lead times must get so long for some releases that you almost understand it. A body of work they greenlighted for production six months or more prior to release must feel quite dated by the time they get round to promoting it.

We do have a few more releases complete and on the way. Teasers coming soon!

You can get the gist of it by just selecting any 1 minute part tbf. No doubt it will be something completely different now!