Robbie

ACR applies from the 10th week, not the 11th week... the exact rule is "Accelerated Chart Ratio cannot be applied to any product with fewer than 9 weeks on chart (ie. ACR can only be applied in its 10th week on the Top 100 chart, at the earliest).". (Singles chart rule 6.2). In other words, what happens on week 9 potentially determines whether on week 10 it attracts SCR or ACR.

I'm thinking another way of getting older tracks off the top 75 / 100 would be to change the ratio to 1000:1 for tracks once they are outside the top 40, as long as they had been top 40 hits to begin with. They are tracks that are being just played on playlists (as a whole). That would make room for newer songs that are are on the way up. It would be the streaming equivalent of the "sell off singles" rule that was introduced to the charts back in 2002, that was intended to remove singles that were yo-yoing around the bottom end of the chart because they'd been placed in the bargain bins in Woolies, Asda etc. It would help tracks get more momentum with the possibility of getting into the top 40 and then get higher up the chart.

Tracks avoiding ACR next week as all have increased sales this week include: Miley Cyrus - Malibu J Hus - Did You See The Chainsmokers & Coldplay - Something Just Like This The Killers - Mr Brightside (this could be top 40 next week!) John Gibbons - PYT

Cheers liamk97. They've released some great records but none other can still beat Mr Brightside. Quite rightfully it's a classic.

Kesha's new single is lovely. I must admit I did get her mixed up with Kiesza at first. I was going to post it was a completely different direction from 'Hideaway'! :lol:

'Castle On The Hill' recorded a sales increase last week (sales to Thursday 29/06) so unless there's backdating of the rules (which I'm convinced there isn't beyond the previous two weeks) then the record shouldn't be hit by ACR this week... it was the only track with 10+ weeks that was inside the top 40 last Friday to record a sales increase. It shouldn't be affected by ACR next week (sales to Thursday 13/07) either as it will only be week 2 of a sales decline (assuming it declines this week, which seems likely). Other long running records to record a sales increase inside the top 75 last week include 'Mr Brightside', 'Rockabye', 'Perfect' and 'What Do I Know'. The last two, both Ed Sheeran tracks, should disappear on Friday under the "three tracks" rule. The first two should have at least another week in the top 100, assuming either sell enough, after the chart published on Friday.

I'm assuming that once a track has been let off ACR and returned to SCR there will be no period of grace (other than 3 subsequent weeks of decline) before the track returns back to ACR. In other words it won't be allowed a further 10 weeks before the rule once again kicks in. That could see the track fall away quite quickly.

It must be some historical thing to have chart rule changes in July as there were also changes to the chart rules made on 1 July 1975 which 1. led to exclusion rules on the singles chart to speed up the turnover of the chart (sounds familiar?!) 2. led to Various Artist albums once again being eligible for the main Albums chart (they had been excluded in July 1973 as they were thought to be distorting the albums market and subsequent Albums chart). In January 1989 they were again removed from the main chart and this is still the case. 3. led to the Albums chart extending from a top 50 to a top 60. For those interested the Singles chart rule was announced by then chart compiler, British Market Research Bureau, as follows “It has been decided by the BPI that in order to stimulate activity at the lower end of the chart for new records, those titles between positions 41-50 which two weeks running show a decline of sales and placing will be dropped from the chart altogether. As a result of the BPI’s decision, it has been agreed to omit the longer list of breakers but to retain the star-breakers section.” The move was made after Woolworths was added to the list of chart return shops and data showed that the chart, already quite slow in turover, would be slower still once Woolies sales were included. The chart exclusion rule was dropped in May 1978 when the chart expanded from a top 50 to a top 75.

There isn't much detail in the Music Week article. Hopefully the OCC will address this. I've made a slight edit to my original post, I'd missed out the word "consecutive" so it now reads 2. Once a track has been on the chart for at least 10 weeks and has declined for three consecutive weeks its streaming to sales ratio will change from 150:1 to 300:1 in an attempt to accelerate its disappearance from the chart

The new issue of Music Week, published this morning, has a front page article about the new rules. I'm sure a more in-depth article will appear at some point today on the OCC site but the main rule changes are: 1. a cap on the number of tracks by an artist that can feature in the Top 100. Only the three most popular tracks by a lead artist will now be eligible for the charts although songs on which an artist is a featured artist will not count towards that total 2. Once a track has been on the chart for at least 10 weeks and has declined for three consecutive weeks its streaming to sales ratio will change from 150:1 to 300:1 in an attempt to accelerate its disappearance from the chart 3. The rules apply from this Friday (30 June) with the first chart published under the new rules on 7 July.

I can see it going top 10 on Friday but I don't think it will be number 1. I've just bought it, has anyone else?

I hope I don't sound heartless and I'm sure Simon Cowell means well but I'd rather he hadn't planned on releasing this record. To me it just doesn't feel right.

The problem is Radio 1 are under pressure to get the average age of their audience down and have more or less been instructed to appeal mainly to 15 to 24 year olds. That means dropping acts who appeal to older listeners.

'Hand On Your Heart' by Kylie was the biggest selling single in the UK the previous week and would have entered the chart at number 1 (and which would have made Kylie the first solo female artist to achieve the feat) had the cassette single version of the single been chart eligible. Although cassette singles were an eligible format, minimum pricing rules were the same as that of a 12" single. 'Hand On Your Heart' was on sale at the same price as a 7" single (£1.99) and cheaper than chart rules allowed. Over 10,000 sales of 'Hand On Your Heart' were on the chart ineligible cassette single format and had they been eligible Kylie would have outsold 'Eternal Flame' by The Bangles with ease - officially The Bangles outsold Kylie by 1,600 copies. The chart rules were changed at the end of May 1989 which allowed 2 track cassette singles to be sold at the same price as a 7" single.

It's something that started in the US in the early 2000s where copyright holders would insist that artists be given a credit even if their contribution was minimal. Of course it happened before then but it's when it really took off. One interesting point to note with regard to tracks that feature multiple acts: under album chart rules if a track features more than one credited act and appears on more than one album (i.e. not just the album released by the main act) then if the track is streamed, the stream counts towards each album that features the track. So one stream could count towards a "sale" of multiple albums.

I agree. It's the amount that go on to reach the top 40 that matters and most just didn't do that. At least this year we have seen a number of tracks climbing in to the top 40. This is why I prefer the charts of the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. Most top 40 records entered the chart outside of the top 40, climbed into the top 40, took a few weeks to climb to their peak and then most then made a swift fall down and off the charts. Most weeks there were usually only about half a dozen or so new entries to the top 40 but the chart always had a fresh feel to it, though there were some long runners in the charts at times.

Over at polyhex, Colin (the site owner) has compiled a number of graphs showing how many records each year have entered at number 1, entered the top 40, top 75 etc. The graph shwoing the number of new entries to the top 75 shows what we all know, that the chart has slowed to a crawl in recent years http://www.polyhex.me.uk/uksingles/new-ent...n-chart-uks.cfm Last year there were less new entries than at any point since 1974.

The single version of 'Three Times A Lady' by Commodores was 3:35. It was the album version that was 6:39 in length...

Looking at the positions below number 40 on the OCC YTD (using the 100:1 ratio), 'Places' by Martin Solveig & Ina Wroldsen is at number 97 despite the fact it has yet to make the top 40 (it's at number 45 this week). And the perennial 'Mr Brightside' by The Killers is at number 94 with a weekly peak on 2017 sales of number 49. On the current weekly chart the latter track is at number 110 on its 501st week inside the top 200.

The OCC is a not-for-profit organisation and is jointly owned by the BPI and ERA, the organisations which represent the record industry and record retailers. Some of the money the OCC make is from marketing and licensing the charts while they also make money from selling the data they collect to organisations within the music industry.

Some of the acts listed above split up in the period between their singles being hits. Other acts: Sham 69 had a number of hits between 1978 and 1980 then nothing until 'Hurry Up England - The People's Anthem' (credited with The Special Assembly) in 2006. Shaggy had a 10 year gap between his hit in 2005 (and even longer, almost 13 years from his last top 40 hit in 2002) until he made number 38 in 2015 along with Mohombi, Faydee And Costi Busted had a 12 year gap between their last hit in 2004 and their comeback hit in 2016. Admittedly the comeback hit only reached number 60.

'Stop' came fairly close to not even making number 2. The previous number 1, 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion fell from the top to number 3 on a sale of 102,000 copies. At this point the Celine single had sold 765,000 copies and was at the top of the year to date best selling singles list. The number 1 album was 'Ray Of Light' by Madonna which sold 74,000 copies in its second chart week. It had debuted at the top the previous week on a sale of just under 140,000. The number 2 album was once again the OST of 'Titanic' which was able to chart on the main album chart because it was credited to composer and arranger James Horner. Its total to date sales were more than 400,000. Number one compilation album was once again 'The Full Monty OST' on sales of 32,000 with cumulative to date sales of over half a million. The number 2 Compilation album was 'Box Hits 98' named after the music TV channel. It sold 24,000 copies.

'5,6,7,8' has sold quite well on downloads as its physical sales in the 90s was 300,048.

I think it charted as an import and wasn't given a UK release.

Over 40 and these days I mainly stream music. I rarely download any more - I think I've bought about 10 downloads in the past 12 months and have all but given up buying CDs. I bought the last Now CD but that was simply to play at the family Christmas get together as my mother doesn't have computer access. Other than buying the Now CD I don't think I've bought another CD since 2015.