AcerBen

Does it though? Is the #1 most listened-to song necessarily the most popular? And there is a way of avoiding it - using the data in a more sophisticated way so it isn't as simple as x streams = y sales. ACR was a step in the right direction but doesn't go far enough.

Though they did show some signs of slowing down towards the end of the download era. It's possible that some people might've bought it on Amazon one year, lost the MP3 and then bought it again on another store. But I know in iTunes for example it isn't possible to re-purchase a song you have already bought - at least not on the same account! I would imagine it was mostly different people downloading each year, as more and more people started using the services.

Why does it feel mostly accurate? That wouldn't work. Registering a whole sale from simply streaming a song for 30 seconds? Doesn't seem right to me. Also it would mean acts with huge fanbases would debut at #1 with ridiculously high sales and then fall off a cliff because everyone had already heard the song. Mostly agree with you here but don't forget that a lot of people aren't as sophisticated music lovers as we are here. A lot of people do just put Hot Hits UK, or Spotify Top 50 and leave it on, as if it's the radio.

Yeah. I agree with her that the chart is broken, but the recipe for getting a chart that means something and is beneficial for the music industry is a lot trickier to get right than she thinks.

People who think Christmas ends on Christmas Day are probably the ones who think it's just a 3 month build-up to a load of presents and literally nothing else.

Oh yes I agree it would be daft to do it, but it'd be fascinating to see whether people would buy them

Good to see they are still publishing this. Extraordinary sales for Pharrell!

Difficult to say, because Spotify has several Christmas playlists

That was so weird wasn't it? I wonder whether CD singles could pick up sales now if they were sold for £1 or something in a prominent position.

I think the chart has lost its integrity with the introduction of streaming. Streaming has benefits for the music industry, and I agree that it had to be factored into the chart, but I don't like the way they combine sales and streams as if they are the same thing. They need to come up with a way that uses the streaming data in a more intelligent way. With so many people streaming from playlists, we can't trust that streaming figures actually reflect popularity. It's only slightly better than airplay in that sense. We've seen records buy their way on to "Hot Hits UK", spend 3 months in the top 100 and score a silver certification in the process. I also think that it's a real shame that for artists who aren't getting on to these playlists, it has become so much more difficult to make the top 40/100. Yes, new acts are still sometimes managing to break through, but it's a lot more difficult than it used to be. It was a lot easier to promote a single for months, build up some support, and hopefully 8,000 people will download it the week it comes out and it makes the top 40. And from there you can hope to build a bigger profile and fanbase and hopefully gain some momentum. Now, you have to reach hundreds of thousands of people to get millions of streams to make the chart. I agree that ACR is arbitrary, and they need to come up with a better way of doing it. But since streaming is now part of the sales chart, we have to accept that it's no longer possible just to add each sale/stream up and say "this is the chart", because adding sales to streams together like that is in itself meaningless. We have to work out what we want the chart to reflect and keep tweaking the rules until we get something that does mean something. For me, the song that deserves to be #1 isn't necessarily the song that has racked up the most streams that week.

Update of upcoming TOTP schedule. 20 Dec | 23:00 | BBC Four | TOTP2 Christmas 2012 22 Dec | 19:30 | BBC Four | TOTP2 Christmas 2017 Partial line-up: The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl Wizzard Slade Mariah Carey The Flying Pickets Kylie & Jason The Darkness ABBA Spice Girls Coldplay Ed Sheeran 22 Dec | 23:10 | BBC Two | Boogie Fever: A TOTP2 Disco Special (repeat from 2007) 23 Dec | 22:00 | BBC Four | TOTP Christmas Hits (repeat from 2016) 24 Dec | 19:30 | BBC Four | TOTP Christmas 1973 24 Dec | 23:40 | BBC Two | TOTP2 Christmas 2014 25 Dec | 12:20 | BBC One | TOTP Christmas 2017 Full line-up: Ed Sheeran - Shape Of You Clean Bandit - Symphony Dua Lipa - New Rules Rita Ora - Your Song JP Cooper - September Song Jax Jones feat. Raye - You Don't Know Me The Script - Rain Jonas Blue feat. William Singe - Mama James Arthur - Naked Anne-Marie - Ciao Adios Stormzy feat. MNEK - Blinded By Your Grace Part 2 29 Dec | 20:00 | BBC Four | TOTP 27/12/1984 31 Dec | 16:05 | BBC One | TOTP New Year's Eve 2017 Full line-up: Ed Sheeran - Galway Girl Anne-Marie - Heavy Craig David & Bastille - I Know You The Vamps - Personal Yungen - Bestie Dua Lipa - Be The One Rita Ora - Anywhere Sigala & Ella Eyre - Came Here For Love Starley - Call On Me Mabel - Finders Keepers Paloma Faith - Guilty 5 Jan | 21:00 | BBC Four | The Story Of 1985 & Big Hits 1985

Isaac Gracie is one of Radio 1's Brit List artists. Could see this doing well.

Thanks for the info. I might be persuaded to switch yet.

I've tried that, and the quality is nowhere near as good

Pink's Beautiful Trauma will go top 10 at least once the Christmas songs are out of the way

I love how attempting to reach #1 is now "cynical".

I think Ed would be firmly in contention for #1 just on sales and streams of the Beyonce version though. The combining of them all helps of course. But what about my point that Mariah wouldn't be getting quite as many streams as she is, if she wasn't at the top of dozens of Christmas playlists right now?

Don't forget that being at the top (or near the top) of most of the streaming services Christmas playlists gives Mariah an advantage as well. I have more of an issue with the possibility of an old song, that is technically the most listened-to, being deemed the most "popular" song of the week by reaching #1 on the singles chart, than anything Ed is doing.

I'm puzzled to see Rockstar still doing those sort of numbers

I wouldn't be surprised for Adele to just release something without warning.. though of course at this point it's now looking less likely! Still hoping Fastlove will come out - maybe on Christmas Day.

It was on the news about 10pm on Christmas Day. I hope she does release it somehow anyway.

What's the difference between that and Perfect (Remix) and Perfect (Acoustic)? You're getting upset about the lack of parentheses?

The Sun think it might be a tribute to Grenfell Tower victims instead https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/51414...-christmas-no1/

Could be awkward for TOTP if there's no video! I suppose they could do a montage of George clips

I expect Adele will walk it though