AcerBen

I think the answer for many of them will be that they were released "too early". The aim was to get biggest first week sales as possible so you held off for as long as possible, doing all your TV apperarances ahead of the release etc and waiting till every man and his dog knew you had a single coming out. But sometimes singles with hit potential hadn't quite reached saturation point at the time of release, so you might enter a bit lower than expected, but high enough to continue to grow at radio and people would continue to discover the track. I always thought this was a better tactic as you "lost" fewer sales by not being available earlier, and staying in the chart longer might mean that you actually sell more copies in the long run. Another one is that a single might sell better than expected in week 1 and run into supply issues. Stacie Orrico's Stuck is one I know about. I heard that the label were expecting it to only go top 30 but it started selling out midweek, which caused to enter at 11. It climbed to 9 the following week once it had been restocked. I suspect Kaci's I Think I Love You may have been a similar kind of thing!

I don't think keeping Wellerman on the C-list is necessarily a snub - I think they've just judged that it's not a song that people necessarily want to hear all the time. As much as many people love it, I should think a lot of people are sick of it too. Radio 1 isn't about hammering songs into the ground. That's Capital.

I notice this particular article doesn't even bother to mention the copies sold. 4.8 million vinyl compared to 16 million CDs. Plus revenue might be up 30% but copies only up 10%. I don't like this narrative that everyone's buying vinyl and the CD is going to die. There's room for both - and the music industry ought to be doing more to save the CD.

Had to laugh when I caught a clip of them inviting applications for the next series.. something like "Have you got what it takes to be the next singing superstar?" ... like when did they ever find a superstar before?

It does seem like you don't have to do as well on the individual streaming charts as you used to in order to get a good OCC position. Can anyone explain this? It's like ACR is doing a better job of kicking old songs out of the way than it used to? I was amazed to see Olivia crash to #18.

I would've thought that the streams of I Have A Dream would be added to the double-a-side, and streams of Seasons In The Sun counted separately? That's what they did with downloads for that Leona Lewis double-a-side Better In Time/Footprints In The Sand, which must be one of the last double-a-sides ever to make the chart. With Footprints appearing on its own lower the top 40.

To all intents and purposes it was, really. The covers even said "including When You're Looking Like That". It just didn't mention it on the spine I suppose. But they promoted it as if it was a double-a-side! Similar situation with Steps "It's The Way You Make Me Feel" and "Too Busy Thinking 'Bout My Baby"!

It's not just about the sudden drop for me. I also don't like songs spending 6 months to a year in the top 40. I think ACR should get even more severe as time goes on.

Still livid that Nothing But Thieves song has done nothing outside the Radio X playlist.

Rasputin is going to be massive.

KEiiNO release "Unbreakable" single on 12th March https://twitter.com/keiinoband/status/1367196006006292482 https://twitter.com/keiinoband/status/1367157888762970115

Great little pop song from Maisie. Hope it does well elsewhere.

That Nothing But Thieves record is a perfect example of a recent rock track that should've been a massive radio hit - if only the likes of Capital were willing to be a little less safe. I don't think a song like that would make their listeners turn over. I'm sure part of the reason Mr. Brightside continues to do so well is because mainstream music fans aren't being exposed to new rock music as much anymore.

Well, you say that, but up until about 15 years ago, Capital and other local stations happily playlisted commercial rock and indie alongside pop and dance. I'm not sure what happened really. I'm a pop lover but I do think it's a shame that there's so little space in the mainstream now for guitar bands. It would just give a bit more flavour to the charts.

I don't think Radio 1 could save it. It's a dud. And I'm a big CB fan.

It's difficult to find any data for the UK market, but globally, Spotify's market share is about 32%, with Apple at 18% and Amazon at 14%. They'll all be a bit higher than that in the UK because there are some other players which operate only in Asia, taking chunks of the global market. Apparently Spotify's global share has been pretty stable since 2015, so the likes of Apple and Amazon are growing but not necessarily at the expense of Spotify. Neither of them are probably going to come close to toppling Spotify any time soon, but they must be doing some pretty good numbers in the UK - that's just clear from how well songs they are pushing are managing to do well on OCC, despite lack of Spotify streams. Of course that'll be partly down to most (or all?) streams on Apple and Amazon being premium ones too, so in pure streams you don't need as many of them. And yes for the foreseeable you'd usually rather be doing well on Spotify than Apple or Amazon. Perhaps unless it's a Christmas song!

Baby Shark is a bit of an odd example but if you're talking more about manufactured pop that used to be aimed at children (like S Club 7, Lolly, B*Witched), it is odd that there's so little of that. But I think kids (as in under 14) aren't listening to music as much as they used to. The kids I know don't seem to be that interested in it. They've all got iPads and other stuff to keep them entertained. Surely it's the 14-21 sort of age range that is really deciding the charts.

The problem I have with "curated" playlists, compared to any other sort of variable like airplay, promotion, stock, price or whatever, is that they have a *direct* impact on the chart. i.e. if you've just put on a playlist in the background and not bothered enough to skip anything, you are contributing to the chart. It's barely any more meaningful that including airplay. Whereas before, however you might have been manipulated to do it, you still had to make an active decision to part with your money and buy a song for it to register.

Yes. Fleetwood Mac is the exception - and they're only there because of young people anyway. It was the physical era when anything could chart, whether it was the latest boyband or indie band, or Cliff Richard or Daniel O'Donnell.

Go Sam! I love his version of N-Trance's Set You Free. And their remix of it.

I agree, but that isn't something that's only happened recently.

I think it's had an impact on long-term chart-watchers, and some who were getting to that crossover age where they stop enjoying chart music anyway, but I don't think it's had a huge impact on the wider public. They're not interested in the technical details of how the chart works. Most wouldn't even be able to tell you the difference between the Radio 1 chart and the Big Top 40.

People have been having this debate for 20 odd years now. The general public is less interested in the drama of the weekly chart, but there's still some awareness of what's doing well by those who are interested in new music. TOTP might no longer be on, but the various radio chart shows probably get about 5 million, and most people who listen to Radio 1 or Capital on a daily basis would probably be able to have a decent stab at telling you who is currently high in the charts. And it's still a useful tool to the music industry and the artists. So it still has a place.

There are other streaming services too.. But clearly Apple Music streams are now important than 1,500 downloads or something.

So interesting to see that Apple Music is starting to create pop hits that Spotify are ignoring - almost wondering if Spotify refuse to playlist them out of spite. How much longer can they ignore Tom Grennan? Has Ava Max started to get some support from Spotify yet?