Corkfella0

Arguably the charts weren’t fair for the first 40 years where once the physical product disappeared from shops it had no chance of charting unless the record company reissued it. With a greater turnover in the charts, radio and streaming would also feature newer fresher content as a consequence. Perhaps pink pony club would not have missed its initial chance in that scenario. I’d favour this to an endlessly static singles chart with minor reshuffling that we have now.

There are many approaches - but why not keep it simple? Half all streams 8 weeks after release date. This would keep the chart fresh and allow a two month period for new releases to make an impact. If necessary have a separate legacy chart to demonstrate the impact of older songs which are having a resurgence. Ideally also there should be nominated singles from albums as happened in the days of physical releases. A record company could spread out the campaign for an album rather than having 3 songs from an album charting in its first week and then disappearing rapidly.

In the US changes were made to the hot 100 at the beginning of the year - detailed below https://www.billboard.com/pro/billboard-charts-add-more-weight-on-demand-streaming-2026/ It doesn’t appear to make much difference. Perhaps differentiating between active and passive playlist listening on streaming services would be more effective?

It’s been a weird year in the charts. In 40 years of following the charts they have never felt so stagnant. New songs don’t appear to be breaking through. Radio is adding a wider number of American country hits to freshen up their playlists but the charts seem to be devoid of new songs. Streaming has played a part of course but it’s never been this bad. What’s the solution? Forcing labels and artists to nominate singles from an album for inclusion in the charts? Exclusion of older hits? Something else?No shade to the current number one as it’s a significant feat. (Although non consecutive weeks so in my book Everything I do and love is all around still have the edge in terms of consecutive weeks.) Should/will the OCC intervene and make some changes? Otherwise we may have the same number one until Last Christmas climbs to the peak in December.

Ding Dong the witch is dead was skipped when it charted following a viral campaign in the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher’s death. I think a short news report was played instead explaining why it was being skipped.

Interesting week. My prediction is that the bad bunny songs will drop like a stone as the superbowl hype dissipates. Interesting too how the Harry Styles song has underperformed. Yes it debuted at number 1 but it sank rapidly since then and is being out sold/streamed by older songs which are on ACR. His team must be very worried. Maybe he's been away too long and his fans have moved on?

Any update this week?