Knightr634

Blue could do 15K if they’re adding 1K a day. Olivia averaging 2.2K a day so could end up on 14.5K. This is going to be tight. Glad Midnight Sun has gone up an extra place to #38. Hoping it can get that top 40

Yeah, even Steps did this too for their What the Future Holds singles. The difference here being that this a viral song aiding a newer less known track exposing it to more people.

The hilarious thing is I Think We’re Alone Now is due a 2020s hit. 1960s - original 1980s - Tiffany 2000s - Girls Aloud 2020s - Tiffany Reprise?

Xmas will have 2 days of data on SCR while Last Christmas etc will have 1 day of sales on ACR, which as the play listing becomes less, will become more disadvantaged for the Christmas songs on acr. I can see Lush Life taking advantage of this.

I’d imagine Boxing Day being a Friday and the Spotify data being missing has probably helped Xmas up a bit.

Yeah I’d imagine Driving Home has climbed due to you know, people probably driving home from the last couple of days. His passing will accelerate its accent and Christmas Eve probably usually its biggest day will be even more so now.

I do wonder how long this whole Christmas starts as soon as Mariah screams “it’s tiiiimmmmmeeeee” on 1st November will start to wear thing. It doesn’t feel that long ago since we packed up the Christmas songs and decorations from last years Christmas and then it suddenly rolled around again. It’s making not only charts feel stale, but the songs themselves. I’ve heard many people say they’re not listening to Christmas songs until December this year and I think that’s gonna start becoming more of a thing next year. What I will say regarding the whole Kylie/Amazon debate. Each one of the streams I gave to Kylie be it Amazon or YouTube, I actively pressed a button to listen to it. I can’t say the same for Last Christmas or the other Christmas songs this year. Funnily enough, I do actually think if there was able to have been a study pole on last weeks active listens, Kylie would probably come out on top.

That was playing on the radio at work when I got the alert on my phone. So sad.

I wouldn’t say pushing back releases is chart manipulation when that’s just scheduling. Shaky still wasn’t guaranteed a #1 by pushing it back a year but he gave the song more of a chance. He still needed people to go out and buy it. What is manipulation from the old days are those rumours of managers of the likes of Boyzone and Take That re-buying cd stock in the bulk load to appear were more popular then they were, but it worked, got them into the newspapers and smash hits and they took off. But the bigger the budget doesn’t always guarantee success - look at Girl Thing. The way the charts are now, it’s an odd one, in truth, it’s probably on a whole less manipulative then back in the day as let’s face it, this last week, how many people actively listening to Raye and the non Christmas songs, as opposed to Xmas, Last Christmas and All I Want? The Amazon manipulation is an interesting one, but I think with Kylie it was a case of all the right ingredients mixed together. A loyal fanbase who will go out and purchase a physical/digital copy adding complete sales in one go - combined with being high on the playlist of your favourite Aunt Alexa. It’s not a unique situation but it’s one that will be hard to replicate with the powers that the more seasoned Christmas songs have.

Maybe oldest female with a new song lol. But we still don’t know yet

I can currently hear XMAS on the radio at work, I can’t work out which station it is, they’re playing it downstairs on the mezzene floor which is why I can hear it but can’t quite hear which radio station. I think it might be Greatest Hits Radio.

Ellie Goulding’s an interesting one, I sort of see it like Girls Aloud’s See the Day. After Ellie’s cover, it spawned other covers and I noticed the song alot more. I don’t think I’d ever heard the song before Ellie, much like See the Day

While I agree to extent, all the Amazon exclusives have been available to listen to and watch the videos for on YouTube - and it’s no different to radio stations prioritising on their playlists which we as a consumer have no way of choosing. To that point, you don’t have to listen to Amazon to seek the song out when it’s been put on the playlists of all the major radio stations. My parents have heard it several times without having any streaming services to their name. It could be argued that previous Amazon exclusives people don’t recognise but that could be because the songs themselves don’t do enough to stand out, (which could be said for most music in general) whether you like it or not, you can’t argue that XMAS isn’t battering you in the face to be heard.

This is why I think as the week has gone on, Kylie has possibly gained a fair few curious streams to see what it’s about. Having heard it’s in the Christmas #1 race. No one is really gonna seek out Last Christmas when the vast majority of people are more than aware of it. This does mean Kylie might not have had as many passive streams as what people may think.

I do think Wham’s units looking lower than usual has benefitted. It could be the time of year but there could also be some general fatigue setting in hearing the same Christmas songs. Christmas songs will have the stranglehold on the charts but apart from a handful of times per season, I don’t really feel the need to hear Last Christmas, All I Want, Driving Home etc. if anything I’ve been seeking out Christmas songs I rarely hear - John Legend and Carrie Underwood’s duet Hallelujah (not that one) being an example of this.