No, I was scrolling and scrolling hoping to see a solution. I really have no idea, how to correct it.It’s a good article, and raises some valid points. He doesn’t seem to provide any solutions though.
I agree that wasn't the best method either. The plague of high new entries was rubbish too. So many songs missed #1 or got to #1 unfairly. I say unfairly in that they lacked the cultural impact of songs they denied a number one.It’s probably just exposed that we do all tend to just listen to the same old shit. Just by the nature of streaming and the ability to count its stats means the charts reflect it much more.
It was probably the same back in the 90s but just hidden by the nature of the chart being based on physical products.
The week Baby One More Time was #3 or #5 or whatever, it probably was the most consumed song in the country based on people listening (across the single, album, radio etc) - but as it had already sold 900k or so it wasn’t the biggest selling single of that week.
But what we have is artificial anyway - or at least entirely arbitrary in terms of how something counts as a sale and the maths involved. So I don't think we should necessarily be afraid of doing something like that.I think you could only create something which would look like the old singles chart by making it much, much more artificial. One way to do it might be by giving the record companies control over when a song enters the charts to reflect the old style single release date. In the first week after its chart release date, it would get credited for 100% of its streams. In week two it would get 95% of its streams and would then drop by 5% each week until everything drops out of the charts after twenty weeks. No re-releases for old Christmas songs or anything else which has charted in the last ten years.
I’m in no way suggesting that they should do this, but it would at least be familiar for those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s.
Neither do I, in that it's a level of manufactured artifice. But of course things would be even worse without it.I don't like ACR particularly. The chart seems so constructed in a way that it never was.
Downloads were perfect.
Yes, all of this. I think an actively chosen search and click for a track on a streaming app and a second search/chosen listen to that track after (say, adding it to one of your own playlists) should count as something/be given a weighting power far closer to a download sale.There is more they can do in terms of ACR. Here we go again, but I'd say increasing the ratios as songs age - rather than that one step we have now, and then removing them from the chart into some form of catalogue chart completely after a determined age. That would at least allow more songs to break through further down the chart.
I'd also still try to prioritise chosen streaming over passive streaming.
But does also feel that the change in listening/consumption has become so fundamental that it can't be 'fixed' - or at least not in a way that makes any comparison with how the chart used to be relevant.
Everyone bemoaned the charts in the 00s - and given the state of singles sales towards the middle of that decade, I can entirely understand why - but for me it really feels like it was a bit of a halcyon era for representation. The top 40 each week was a proper grab bag of all the different genres, and pretty much every subgenre got their own little heyday at the top at some point or with some band or the other.And of course all of this comes from me (and most of us here, I think) considering that the chart was RIGHT back in our day. And despite our differences in age, the chart didn't really change for decades. It's only in the last decade that things changed and went to shit.
I still refuse to believe Bobby Helms (or Kelly Clarkson for that matter) is more popular than the Pogues or Band Aid. God bless Spotify playlist placement.
This is my favourite version.
And of course all of this comes from me (and most of us here, I think) considering that the chart was RIGHT back in our day. And despite our differences in age, the chart didn't really change for decades. It's only in the last decade that things changed and went to shit.
I don't like ACR particularly. The chart seems so constructed in a way that it never was.
Downloads were perfect.
Very sad, unless they can find a way to recreate sales. The more I think about it, the more I think adding something to one of your own playlists should count as a sale (but you can only do one of those sales) and streaming should be downgraded in comparison to that.Downloads were great - when a song was big, it was big. But it didnt hang around forever because once you purchased it once you didn’t again. I guess that is the crux, but that’s never going to change now so there isn’t really any method of making it more ‘exciting’ without rules that kind of defeat the purpose.
I guess the charts are just, and always will be, less relevant now?
I sometimes wonder whether it has hit us harder in the UK, as a country which never included airplay in its charts. Because that's the significant change really. Until streaming counted, the chart only ever recorded sales - what people were buying. Streaming brought in a lot more passive listening, which is more similar to airplay, and including what people were listening to. Then the OCC decides the official chart is somehow going to combine both into one chart and devise a fanciful system to somehow create a chart based on two quite separate things.Downloads were great - when a song was big, it was big. But it didnt hang around forever because once you purchased it once you didn’t again. I guess that is the crux, but that’s never going to change now so there isn’t really any method of making it more ‘exciting’ without rules that kind of defeat the purpose.
I guess the charts are just, and always will be, less relevant now?
Is there even a definition of chosen stream that is fair, technically feasible, and would be consistent across platforms?
Is your liked playlist active or passive listening?
Are "This is Artist" playlists active or passive?
Is playing the first song at the top of a playlist, rather than hitting play on the playlist as a whole, an active or passive stream?
That's just Spotify off the top of my head. Who would of course need to agree and give this information to the OCC. You would very quickly encounter edge scenarios that need to be decided one way or another and you'd then need to get all the platforms to agree. YouTube proper (as opposed to YouTube music) especially would prove difficult to fit into criteria
The period where the charts were at their most accurate is probably the download era. Every era was in some way crooked, the days of 'chart return' stores being the worst with those stores being given cheap stock, very few indie stores being part of it and bullshit such as 'regional weighting' being used to keep acts with a large local fanbase down. Once every sale was counted (at least in theory), it was fairer but really, that period where downloads were 95% of the chart was by far the most reliable.
Totally. It was even used against known, successful bands. The Smiths regularly sold enough to be top 5 but the sales were in 'the wrong shops' and the Manchester-heavy sales were rounded down so they found themselves in the mid teens. The perils of being popular on an indie label in the 80s.The 80s were a mess- loads of specialist interest shops didn’t count for the charts and so you have ridiculous high sales for things like Hi-NRG records that never charted.
I want to play Disease by Lady Gaga. I currently have four ways to do that.
I can hit play on "This is Lady Gaga" knowing it is top of that playlist.I can hit play on "Liked" knowing it is top there.I can play Lady Gaga, knowing it is her top of her five songs.I can click the search bar, type the word disease, and then play the result that comes up.
I actively want to choose Disease, but some of those would be active, some would be passive. It wouldn't be fair.
Totally. It was even used against known, successful bands. The Smiths regularly sold enough to be top 5 but the sales were in 'the wrong shops' and the Manchester-heavy sales were rounded down so they found themselves in the mid teens. The perils of being popular on an indie label in the 80s.
Because you would need to define a chosen stream and no definition will actually make much sense when applied to real people's behaviour.But why does that matter?
Because you would need to define a chosen stream and no definition will actually make much sense when applied to real people's behaviour.