AcerBen

Shaggy's career is interesting but not sure how it links in with your original question? Plus he didn't disappear after Boombastic - he had a few top 20 hits in '96 and '97. The only sort-of example I can think of right now is 2 Unlimited - in Europe they are best known for No Limit, but in the States it wasn't a hit. Their Get Ready For This did well there, though of course it was also a hit in Europe too

Doing well on iTunes alone won't get you anywhere, but 5,000 sales can give you a leg up the chart to top up your streams. Like the Kygo and Whitney one. We probably should get less excited about songs only going top 40 on iTunes but even when sales are low it still means something, and sustaining a top 40 position might be an indication that a song *could* also take off on streams too.

Kelli-Leigh - and her solo stuff is really great too

I agree that removing streams from the chart is a ridiculous idea and sales are becoming increasingly irrelevant. I get your point about how streams just show the popularity of a song and so what if songs stay in the charts for months on end - that would be fine if the chart was there purely to reflect consumption. But it isn't, and never has been. It is a promotional tool for the industry, so the struggle for certain artists to get on the chart makes it harder for them to break through. It also has a direct impact on media decisions on playlisting, who to book for TV shows etc. And the chart one way or another has an effect on what people listen to, so it becomes a vicious circle. The public need to be persuaded to listen to more new music. If the chart is slow and clogged up with the same old songs, it's bad for the industry. In the sales era, the chart reflected momentum and shifts in popularity. And once they'd peaked in popularity, they'd move out of the way for new songs. In my view, that's what the official chart should still do. ACR is one way of doing that, though I don't think they've got it right yet. They should come up with a more complex formula to make the chart behave a little more like it used to, so more songs can make the top 40. You can still have a streaming chart that just reflects total streams, but the official chart should be about what's fresh and gaining in popularity. With downloads continuing to fall, of course giving them more prominence in the chart formula is not the answer, but it is frustrating that legacy artists or new artists struggling to build a fanbase who'd in the old days would've sold 10,000 copies in a week and made the top 20, now can't get anywhere near the top 100. And whilst in a way streaming does reflect popularity better than sales, I don't like how being on curated playlists or not has such a big effect on the numbers, and that it seems like the streaming chart mainly reflects the popularity of songs with a certain demographic, rather than the country as a whole. I don't know what the solution to that is. We probably just have to live with it.

just on the sales chart

There might be more people available to listen on a Sunday, but the Friday Chart gets more listeners than the Sunday one was getting before it ended. Something like 1.5 million vs. 1 million I believe, so that's surely been a success. And at least it now being on both a Friday and Sunday means more exposure to the chart and helps secure its future as something that is still considered relevant.

They have changed the rule about resetting ACR that you only need to increase sales by 25% now instead of 50% - could it be that?

Sorry if this is already known.. @leethommo Oooh, just noticed the Official Charts people have quietly introduced a tweak to their rules, all active from today. Now, if a song gets downgraded after 10 weeks to ACR, it's easier for it to come out of that zone. It only needs to increase its tally by 25% rather than 50.

Great to see Lighthouse Family doing well. I didn't think there'd been enough support or buzz for them to do that well.

Toto's Africa has always been a big catalogue seller though, I just don't get why

It really frustrates me that Spotify could be doing so much to push listeners towards newer songs but they don't do it.

Week 4 is nothing. He's going to be top 10 for the rest of the year and beyond.

Why are you stunned? If anything, given how big his singles have been he should be selling more.

Any sign of JP Cooper on any playlists yet? Sing It With Me sounds like it could be a monster summer hit to me

Really hope Will can score a #1 album

I think it's simply that the writer Dave Clark had been looking for the tapes for years and only finally found them recently.

Great to see them add JP Cooper. He's A-list on Radio 2 too. Hoping it will become a hit, it really sounds like one.

You'll probably spot it anyway, but just in case, KEiiNO's Praying is out at midnight and it's amazinggg

It was released - got to #32. It's just a stripped down version with an alternative vocal take.

But why? Who even is he? It's such a messed up situation that so many acts need to feature on some producer's record to get a hit these days, regardless of whether your own material is better.

Kelli-Leigh's Without You is out next week https://twitter.com/kellileighuk

It's really good though and instantly recognisable as a Shapeshifters record!

F**k it I'll pay £10 a month for something I previously didn't want because I now have to click somewhere else to get to the Store? Nah.

Why are Radio 1 and 2 so desperate to make Georgia happen? It's a bang average record and shows no sign of taking off.

Why should it affect it at all? They're not closing the Store.