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Are The Charts Outdated?
Just read that Ed sheeran has 16 of the top 20 singles places this week - is he really that good?
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He certainly is popular and if he really is a 'one trick pony' as someone suggested he has been getting away with it for six now as he has been a top selling artist since 2011. The world has moved on since the 1960-80s where people bought physical singles. Few record shops exist. Most people buy music as downloads or stream tracks. A paid-for download is a valid purchase and seems to me to be just as valid as walking into a shop to pick a copy up.
Streamed 'sales' are different. Each 150 'streams' counts as one unit. Whether that figure should be changed is a point that is valid to debate as more and more people stream tracks rather than buy them. It's similar to the US charts which have for a long time factored in airplay figures.
The main impact though is that singles were released as a clearly identified item to achieve sales and to promote an artist and album. They hung around for about 6-8 weeks in the charts and then a bit later a new single would be put out. What happens now is that any track that is downloaded or streamed can be eligible for the charts. Ed Sheeran has hit the news for having 9 out of the top 10 (most of which will have l had little airplay so most of us won't recognise them). Last week it was Stormzy with around 10 tracks in the top 50. Over the past couple of years the lower regions of the charts have been taken over by songs that keep hanging around for several years. Some tracks have even been in the top 40 for well over a year. It blocks the way for newer artists
For me I feel it's a shame as I have always followed the charts and used to buy every Guinness Book of Hit Singles. But maybe we need to accept that the old 'single' is a meaningless term now to most young people, and as the years go buy we may find record companies stop making physical records altogether
Streamed 'sales' are different. Each 150 'streams' counts as one unit. Whether that figure should be changed is a point that is valid to debate as more and more people stream tracks rather than buy them. It's similar to the US charts which have for a long time factored in airplay figures.
The main impact though is that singles were released as a clearly identified item to achieve sales and to promote an artist and album. They hung around for about 6-8 weeks in the charts and then a bit later a new single would be put out. What happens now is that any track that is downloaded or streamed can be eligible for the charts. Ed Sheeran has hit the news for having 9 out of the top 10 (most of which will have l had little airplay so most of us won't recognise them). Last week it was Stormzy with around 10 tracks in the top 50. Over the past couple of years the lower regions of the charts have been taken over by songs that keep hanging around for several years. Some tracks have even been in the top 40 for well over a year. It blocks the way for newer artists
For me I feel it's a shame as I have always followed the charts and used to buy every Guinness Book of Hit Singles. But maybe we need to accept that the old 'single' is a meaningless term now to most young people, and as the years go buy we may find record companies stop making physical records altogether
Too old to know much about charts these days, but one tends to have doubts that anyone releases 16 singles at once. Makes 16 tracks available on an LP maybe. Are they counting each separately as singles at a time when downloading is easy and done without much thought, because it's cheap and electronic ? It does sound like the way these things are counted/defined needs looking at.
He has got so many in the chart now and I believe they are all from the same album. When buying downloads you can buy the whole album or just the songs you want. I have lots of CD's in my attic (which is probably not doing them any good) as I have transferred all my music to iTunes and now only buy downloads.
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