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I made an excel document on how ACR affected 2024 top 10 singles and what the movements would have looked like without ACR https://1drv.ms/x/c/232761d6a2d9878f/EUFiqV...cyLaQw?e=c1REtD

I was bored, so I decided to randomly see and study how ACR affected the top 10 last year/which songs benefitted the most from ACR. I used the non ACR chart estimates done by @JulianT to help me. Furthermore, I used chart statistics from the chart dates: 5th January 2024 - 27th December 2024 The categories on the Excel document include - peaks of the songs on a non ACR chart, their peak on the actual chart, the amount of weeks they spent in the top 10 on the non ACR chart, then the amount of weeks on the actual chart as well as the dates they would have entered the top 10 and peaked on the non-ACR chart. *I used only the 2024 peaks of the songs, obviously there were songs such as Lovin On Me, Water, Houdini, Prada, Greedy, Vampire, Cruel Summer and Strangers which are all reached their peaks in 2023, and songs like APT and That's So True that are currently smashing in 2025 - however I only focused on their success in 2024. Here's what I found: SLOW AND SLUGGISH - There would have been 11 weeks in 2024 where the top 10 wouldn't have changed whatsoever (maybe in positions, but the songs remain the same) Arguably the driest period of the year was June to September - responsible for 6 out 11 of the no change weeks, only 15 new songs would have managed to crack the top 10 in that 17-week period and there were 6 weeks in this period where there was no change to the top 10 songs at all, and out of the 15 new songs, 6 of them were 1-week entries. - Instead of 99 top 10 singles in 2024, we would have had 74 instead, this would be less than 2016's low of 75 top ten singles (although I'm very confident that most of the years from 2017 to 2023 would have had lower with no ACR) Longest running top 10 singles of 2024 without ACR Beautiful Things by Benson Boone - 35 weeks Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter - 32 weeks Birds Of A Feather by Billie Eilish - 27 weeks A Bar Song (Tipsy) - 23 weeks Lose Control by Teddy Swims/Too Sweet by Hozier/Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan - 22 weeks Stick Season by Noah Kahan/Please Please Please by Sabrina Carpenter - 20 weeks - Out of the 74 top ten singles, 41 benefited from ACR rules in one way or another - whether it was a higher or lengthier peak or more weeks in the top 10. Dasha's Austin is really the song that I believe benefitted the most from ACR, Austin was in the top 10 for 21 weeks between April and August 2024, reaching No.5 however on a non-ACR chart, the song only peaked at No.8, in fact it would have only been in the top 10 for 6 weeks, and would have even reached its chart peak in April - a whole 4 months earlier than it did in real-life. - ACR helped pretty much every top 10 single from September to November with many strong jumps and changes in positions - For e.g. ACR turned Chappell Roan's 'Hot to Go' into a No.4 peaking song which lasted 10 weeks inside the top 10. On a non-ACR chart, it would have only peaked at No.10, and be in the top ten for only 1 week. Dance songs, Kisses and Somedays would have peaked at No.9 and No.10 respectively on a non-ACR chart, yet ACR clearances led to these songs becoming top 5 hits. - In 2024, we had 13 number ones, 12 of them would reach No.1 on a non-ACR chart with Stick Season and Taste being the longest running with 10 weeks each. However, Gigi Perez's Sailor Song would not have reached the top spot in November had Taste not been put on ACR. Instead, it would have peaked at No.2 for 4 weeks. - Christmas songs were all negatively affected by ACR in 2024, with many losing a week or even a spot in the top 10 because of ACR rules. Ariana Grande, Andy Williams and Shakin Stevens were the most affected. Shakin Stevens and Andy Williams were both shut out of the top 10 due to ACR (12 and 11 respectively) however on the non-ACR chart, their 2024 peaks would have been No.10 and No.8. Ariana was denied a spot in the top 5, Santa Tell Me was forced with a No.8 peak for 2024. - In terms of non Christmas songs, 3 songs were negatively impacted by ACR rules, Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo and Strangers by Kenya Grace would have been in the top 10 at the start of January on a non-ACR chart, unfortunately ACR dragged them down to No.22 and No.19. And A Bar Song by Shaboozey although still one of the biggest hits of 2024 was denied a No.2 peak, the song was No.3 for 7 weeks instead. Link to excel document is below excel link: https://1drv.ms/x/c/232761d6a2d9878f/EUFiqV...cyLaQw?e=gdS74u

IT Girl did 696K on Spotify yesterday

I'm so happy for Jade!

It Girl is doing better than Fantasy, despite being a promo single and not having any "Today's Hits/Hot Hits" type playlisting. Its Spotify partial is also better than Fantasy's. Crazy.

oh okay, thanks

Okay, this will seem like a silly post but- I've been checking the "stream equivalent sales" of No.1s since the 150:1 ratio was implemented in 2017. And I've used the ratio to find out how many streams a song got in a week based on those sales, and some of them do not match at all. For e.g. Sprinter was said to have got 107,744 streaming units on its 1st week which came from 13.4 million streams. However, if we're doing the 150:1 ratio, that will only give you 89k streaming units. 107k would mean you got 16 million streams. I also checked songs like Easy On Me, Please Please Please, 7 rings, I Don't Care and the same situation occurred. I also looked at No.1s from the 100:1 ratio era and this was never a problem, the calculation made sense. So is it's either that I can't do maths or Sales week/OCC can't do maths. Like, how are they actually carrying out this chart ratio?

Push 2 Start top 50 on Spotify :music:

Okay, I know this may be a silly question, but why is that late of year releases (September - December hits) suffer so much when it comes to end of year charts even if in the grand scheme they're bigger than many hits that came at the start of the year as well as some filler hits from a previous calendar year that are able to secure spots in the top 40? Like what was the shift because even if you consider streaming, this has only been a pattern since 2017/18. And the download era didn't have this problem either.

It's crystal ball time. What do you think 2025 will look like?

The only thing that's broken really is the No.1 spot, ACR shouldn't affect the No.1. Sprinter would have spent 12 weeks at No.1 with no ACR and it should have had all 12 weeks, not have its sales cut after Week 10. If a song leaves No.1 after its 10th week, and it doesn't go back to No.1 in the 2 weeks after it leaves that spot, THEN put it on ACR. Like a 12 week number 1 isn't going to hurt anybody really, yes people will obviously grow tired but the No.1 spot should be sacred, the amount of songs that are No.1s only because the song above got its sales halved is ridiculous.

Spotify Top 15 Without Christmas Songs 1. That's So True - Gracie Abrams (#4) 2. Sailor Song - Gigi Perez (#7) 3. APT - Rose and Bruno Mars (#12) 4. Taste - Sabrina Carpenter (#16) 5. Die With A Smile - Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga (#17) 6. Defying Gravity - Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande (#20) 7. Birds Of A Feather - Billie Eilish (#21) 8. Luther - Kendrick Lamar ft. SZA (#26) 9. Good Luck Babe - Chappell Roan (#27) 10. TV off - Kendrick Lamar ft. Lefty Gunplay (#29) 11. Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter (#30) 12. I Love You, I'm Sorry - Gracie Abrams (#33) 13. What Is This Feeling - Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo (#34) 14. Popular - Ariana Grande (#36) 15. Squabble Up - Kendrick Lamar (#38) New peaks for the top 3 Wicked songs stopped due to the Xmas takeover.....

Whenever Chappell releases The Giver, I won't be shocked if it goes No.1 or at least top 3

Idk I feel like the *big* groups like S Club 7, Steps, All Saints and Westlife would have done something, most likely smaller than they did in the 2000s, but they would all have Liitle Mix type success on streaming I reckon

And this is the case for many of the No.1s in the late 90s/early 2000s, a lot of them only got to No.1 because of name/label manoeuvring and they failed to really connect with the gp - hence why they would fall so quickly. This is one reason why I like streaming a bit, it kinda shows the hits that are really sticking around.

Yes!

That's what I think too, I was reading a book on the 90s/00s UK pop scene, and there was a part of the book that talked about the "big six" in Woolworths, where only 6 of the big releases each week were on there and if you weren't in the big six it affected your chart success, pop groups most likely benefitted the most from this, but with streaming, there is so much choice now, would these pop groups survive with wider competition or would they benefit? I mean the only pop groups you can think of in the streaming era is Little Mix, BTS and Blackpink, but really they benefitted more from pure sales rather than streaming.

If streaming was around in the late 90s/early 2000s (1996-2004) and was as big as it is now, which songs or even artists do you think would have been bigger than they were in the UK.

Rose and Bruno in the top 25 now on Apple Music

It's the freshest top 10 since 2019.

Apple Music 55. Sympathy Is A Knife - NEW

Freshest end of year chart for like 5 years, wow

Abel and Carti are falling quickly on Apple Music-

The UK music scene in general has become more and more dry in recent years, for so many reasons. Yeah, we've had Charli recently (even that was kinda limited) but other than that, but if we look at the bigger picture - Dua's album had very underwhelming results, god knows where Harry is, Adele is back on hiatus and after over 2 years we are still yet to have a major girl group to fit Little Mix's slot, we haven't had a major new UK pop artist since Lewis and also the rap/grime scene is looking at bit dry too. You can't really celebrate UK talent, when the pot is basically empty

The reason why the charts are so stagnat is because this month we've really had no quote on quote "big" release that could shake something up, September has arguably been the most dry release month of the year so far, we have Gaga that could possibly do something but let's see what new music October brings.