Supercell

I'm actually beginning to think the removal of free streams may speed the chart up naturally. As I can imagine, and by what the OCC have said about not axing free streams completely, that its the younger demographic that make a large chunk of free streams whilst paid for is probably more fairly mixed. So certain artists I reckon may see a fall in their streaming. Hopefully their next rule change will be axing ACR but I highly doubt they ever will. Edit: Actually does anyone know if total sales will be calculated on a 1:100 basis for all formats and subscriptions?

Amazing George looks to finally nab a no.1 hit, given its now no.2 on Spotify I'd say he's bagged this and could stay there a few weeks. Would never have dreamt it after Don't Matter Now flopped last summer but firstly he came out of nowhere to reach no.2 with Paradise, then the album topped the chart and now this.

This is an interesting addition to the chart. I'm glad they are making some steps to make the chart about premium subscription streaming rather than including free streams. However they should just remove them all imho, but I guess this might be them testing the waters first before making further changes down the line. Video streaming I've thought should have been included for a long time so I'm quite happy about that. Finally bringing the ratio back to 1:100 makes so much sense as they brought in 1:150 to speed things up prior to ACR.

Oh lovely thanks for that i'll have a gander :)

Just had a look at this Resonate service and its actually very good. Paying per song you stream with it increasing to the same price as a download over 9 listens and then its free. I doubt this will overtake the streaming giants of Apple and Spotify but if it were ever too or the payment method was adopted, this would be a very good way of measuring streaming towards the chart. As once someone has contributed a full download equivalent it can be exempt from being counted and would have the same affect as ACR on the chart but more gradual without the complicated rules. As to what will replace streaming I'd like to say I doubt anything will as its hard to see what would, but then again I thought the same with downloads about eight years ago. So I'm sure something will come along but comparing streaming to downloads but I do feel like streaming is reaching its peak and will plateau at some point in the next couple of years. I think the only big boost it will get now is if iTunes were to close. Finally I can totally see why Radio 1 would drop the chart as tbh. Streaming has made the chart incredibly static and I honestly dont think its incorporation into the chart is really working very well and ACR hasn't fully solved the problem. Furthermore since they brought in ACR, I've personally lost a lot of interest in the chart itself as it doesn't really represent anything anymore, so even though I don't read the Sun I actually tend to follow the official streaming chart more as I find thats more representative of whats actually popular. Annoyingly they dont have a tab on chart runs for the audio streaming chart sadly.

Really interesting to see songs that struggled to reach the top 10 yet were no.1 on airplay for weeks. If airplay had been merged with sales like the states it would have made for some interesting charts and may seen some songs get deservedly higher peaks. Happy no.1 for 16 weeks though :o I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at it was played to death for ages at the time but still that is really impressive.

Ignore my last comment not had my morning cup of tea yet :lol:

Yeah I don't understand what this is all about especially as its the same as the BPI awards. I agree though that the certifications should be changed back to pre 1989 levels. Its so easy now for a song to shift a million units now let alone 600k given you can add endless sales units from streaming. Even the download era saw a huge level of songs selling that much but with streaming its doubled it. Also how has Havana only been certified Gold, surely its shifted over a million units now which would make it platinum?

Rita Ora's recent return I think could be one. I honestly thought she was just naturally fizzling out, she hadn't had any major hits in a good 2/3 years, but now she's bagged a string of top 10 hits in quick succession the past 6 months. Craig David is another one if its not already been said, his last top 10 hit must have been in the mid 00s prior to WTBD.

No I hated the held back releases era during the peak of the download era, it just got stupid by 2014 when we had a new no.1 per week that would end up crashing out the chart after a few weeks for the most part. It was fine in the 90s early 00s when every single release was treated that way, even if it was artificial. However when downloads came in it completely changed everything as post album singles could be cherry picked at any moment which put them at a disadvantage against held back releases. Then OA/OS tried to be established and failed because record labels didn't like they couldn't manipulate the chart, a point still valid now streaming has taken over. Whilst the chart was a slower before ACR was introduced it was at least representing what is actually popular, although the way streaming is counted could be a little better.

Ah I love the BRITs they are my favourite awards show by miles! Even better I'm not working so I can actually watch it live and vote via twitter depending if there's anything I like :lol: . This year looks to be much more exciting than last year as well, in which it was the most sorry looking state of affairs due to how awful the music in general was last year but also in particular for British based acts. The past year has seen quite a number of British acts having decent success and breaking out. I must admit I have had a gripe with the actual awards for some time now. I don't like how international artists don't get much of a look in, increasingly so these days. They should either have all the awards but open it up to international artists and maybe have a couple of specific British awards like Critics Choice and a best British act or something. Or have the same categories for the international artists.

Didn't like it on a first listen but after the 3rd time of hearing it, I'm rapidly starting to love it. Very much like sexy back part 2. Really hope this gets to no.1 and ends Ed's domination at the top.

Ah yes I keep forgetting the weekly one is different. That said whilst I personally haven't streamed a song 10 times each week for several weeks I'm sure some people do, especially given some of the spotify posters Ive seen over the xmas period where people have streamed something 3-4000 times over the year. Whilst that may be an extreme case and obviously not all of those streams would have converted into chart sales, I'm sure a lot of people manage to at least stream something 10 times or thereabouts in a week over a 4-5 week period. Christmas songs being a very good example actually based on each year being added up. It would be better if once it is streamed enough to count as one download equivalent it should no longer be counted. Yes but my point was even with ACR clamping its sales in half it still managed to be no.1.

Some good points made in that article, they did fail to point out their is a daily cap. But given you can contribute 70 streams per week and 100 = 1 digital download, Its still relatively easy for someone to keep listening to it on loop for a few weeks and keep the song lodged up at the top of the chart. Reducing it so one play = 1 sale is too drastic and personally id feel cheated that by listening to a song once or for 30 seconds would count towards a chart if i was listening out of curiosity. That said there needs to be some kind of permeant cap in place, its a very simple solution and solves many problems. ACR may have speeded up the chart to small degree at the expense of older songs, but it wont fix the problem and Despacito illustrated that in the summer as it still managed to be no.1 purely because its streaming was so huge.

Ah fab! thanks for the info :) I thought that was the case but just wanted to check. Mainly as I keep seeing these Spotify posters about people who stream a song like 1,000 in a week but then I remembered there was a cap, so in essence they only have 70 counted on that week as a max.

Seems to be a typo, surely Pharell has the biggest selling single by a solo artist, he sold 1.9 million copies against Will 1.78. Anyway I've always marvelled at how much that song managed to sell, its a shame downloads collapsed they way they have. Also it's surprising we never got a 2 million selling hit from the download era, given how sales overall were the highest ever. In the U.S and notably Australia they smashed records, with them having pretty much their entire top 20 best selling singles occurring during the download era, yet in UK we never got that mega selling hit apart from Happy.

Just had a question as I couldn't find the answer for looking. But is there still a daily cap of 10 streams per song and also the total streams that are counted are they based on streams that are accumulated from this cap being in place?

That MW article really is a load of waffle. Whilst I understand and agree with their point about new christmas songs struggling to make and impact, its no use pointing the finger of blame at streaming for what has already been a trend that the download era kicked off. Gwen and Sia hardly had a big promotional christmas single to kick things off. Coldplay only reached No.13 with their Christmas hit in 2010 despite it being used in loads of tv adverts and was a pretty good christmas song by all standards. I think only Adele would have a shot with a christmas themed song being no.1. Also they are missing the fact that Michael Buble has managed to re-peak with a song from his 2011 Christmas album and I wouldn't mind betting one year he'll go top 10 with something from that album. Might be an old song but its still a modern take on it thats doing well. As for the supposed "ruining of the christmas chart" where an earth was this analogy the past decade. The X Factor single handedly killed off any notion of the race to Christmas no1. The winning margin in most years was at least 100k over the next record. Thats hardly a close race. Yes they may have lost a handful of years due to some mad dash campaign, which was interesting the first time it happened. But after that every year some crappy charity record tried to do the same so unless you were X Factor or some choir you had no chance of getting anywhere near and nobody else bothered. I'm actually convinced thats why January saw a ton of blockbuster hits being released most years. This year is the first since 2003 where there has actually been a chart battle between two non X Factor or charity singles and imo its totally refreshing and is what the christmas no.1 most years was all about. I can't remember many years at all in the late 90s or very early 00's where there was anything but normal songs fighting for the Xmas No.1 with a novelty hit thrown in somewhere. Rant over haha.

I second this. Knew he was going to have pretty decent first week sales, think he may be in with a shout of 150k or not far off. Can't see Ed overtaking him but he may close the gap. Holding out hope Adele may come from nowhere and steal the xmas no.1 single :lol:

I have to agree with some of those comments. The chart right now for me doesn't represent anything and I've almost lost complete interest. The creation of ACR is what killed it for me as it just makes a mockery of the chart. All it is now is a random collection of songs that aren't in numerical order of the most popular/streamed. They would have been better either leaving it as it was or bringing in a sensible rule where they prevent ridiculous amounts of streaming on an individual basis causing songs to stay afloat for months on end. The Spotify posters I've seen lately highlight the issue of streaming massively, where people have listened to a certain song 4,000 times over several months. Whilst these are the extremes I'm sure a large number of people have racked up 200/300 listens of their favourite song over the course of a few weeks. It's no wonder something stays in the top 10 for 4 months at a time when that kind of streaming is going on and the OCC have never tried to address that issue head on. They created something that they don't even follow half the time, completely manipulated by the record labels and gives a faux shelf life to singles in an era where there is no shelf life and music can be consumed no matter how old.

It's refreshing to see an actual Xmas chart battle happening from original artists, with the X Factor and its hate campaigns nowhere in sight. Really hope this trend continues in future years. Granted Wham is a campaign of sorts but its not against the X Factor and it was No.3 last week on its own merit. Anyway I think Eminem's pretty much nailed the No.1 album. Its doing very well on streaming and given his last album did 143K in its first week, I reckon he may surprise everyone with its sales this week. His last album didn't exactly have a huge lead single either, The Monster took off as the album came out if I remember rightly. In fact Recovery was the same.

I can't see it being no.1 for that long, I think it will struggle this week tbh. I voted for 3 weeks but I think he'll topple himself with Eminem.

Great to see Without Me over a million units! My favourite song of his and the only one I can actually recite 90% of the words, actually Just Lose It as well :lol:

Given Ed is chucking every remix out under the sun like he did with SOY he stands a very good chance of staying on but think Wham and Mariah will give him a run for his money. Eminem has the album wrapped up nicely can see him shifting 100k easily this week.

Just catching up with this thread. Shame Look At Me wasn't higher, could have sworn I put a 10 on the vote but never mind. It's one of her best easily, I remember being gobsmacked that it failed to reach no.1 and was probably just as irritated as Geri was that it wasn't :lol: . Do think it was a very underrated bit of pop back at the time, Geri really suited the jazzy pop sound I wish she'd stuck with it more for the debut album. Glad to see my favourite singles from Victoria ending up in the top 10. Out Of Your Mind is an absolute banger, again a travesty that it wasn't no.1. If she had run with that sound and followed it up fairly swiftly with subsequent singles and album she may well have carved out a more successful debut era. I do think looking back at it now she (along with Geri) could have forged very successful careers had they come out with the right sound. Also love Emma's Free Me, I think again this was one of her strongest songs and very underrated. Would have served as a much better James Bond song than the one Madonna churned out the same year. Really not keen on WTYSL though, still rather surprised at how popular that is and how it topped the charts for a fortnight.