![]() (Saying that, Galway Girl, the dire mishmash of Irish stereotypes that Sheeran’s label tried to keep off the record, is proving to be its second most popular track: really?) And it’s not really about him (although Sheeran is a notorious figures hound, and delayed the release of ÷ to avoid clashing with with potential competition). It would be snobbish to lament Sheeran’s dominance, because his music clearly means the world to millions, and the thought of an album becoming part of the fabric of people’s lives is always heartening. Milk and bread will always dominate the upper echelons, with occasional exceptions for weeks when Saturday Kitchen does something cheeky with tamarind paste and everyone ransacks the specialist aisle. The public’s most prevalent tastes are thus revealed in gory detail, even though the focus on enduring popularity is like ranking the most popular supermarket purchases. Streaming is a measure of a person’s available listening time, which concentrates the vote into the hands of a certain group who love playing the same tracks over and over. What’s different now is that the dominance of streaming rewards passivity – repeat listening – rather than active discovery. The system of compiling the chart from a small number of “chart return” record shops meant it was easy to game the Top 40 by sending people in to buy particular singles in bulk. The UK Top 40 has never been a pure reflection of an artist’s success – in the 1990s, labels took advantage of formatting rules by releasing singles in multiple versions to encourage the diehard fans to buy them all previously there had been badges and picture discs and all the gimmicks designed to give one single an edge over the other. But it’s also terrible PR – proof, if it were needed, that the charts are now, essentially, meaningless. You can see why they wouldn’t: the overwhelming success of a British act is great PR for an organisation that’s dwindled in relevance next to YouTube and Spotify, with their more immediate metrics of plays and stats. And you shouldn’t change rules for extreme cases.” ![]() In contrast, ÷ has generated 79,000 album streams. As a result, Stormzy’s album ended up with one track in the Top 20 and seven tracks in the Top 40. The highest number of streams for any album before was Stormzy last week, which achieved 21,000 album streams, then a record for a No 1 album. “But we shouldn’t (and won’t) rush to any kneejerk actions. “We will review chart methodologies (as we continually do) to see if there is something we could or should change,” he says. ![]() ![]() I asked OCC chief executive Martin Talbot if Sheeran’s chart domination would induce another shift. This January, the OCC announced that the figure had almost doubled to 80%, and that it was changing its rules, though not significantly: you now needed 150 streams to count as one unit. In 2014, the format accounted for just 41.5% of the overall singles market, at a time when 100 streams were the equivalent of one “sale”. (Incidentally, Sheeran’s single Thinking Out Loud was the first streaming-abetted No 1.) The Official Charts Company underestimated the huge effect the change would have. According to BBC figures, in the first six months of 2016, there were 86 new entries in the UK singles chart, compared with 230 a decade earlier. Since the introduction of streaming in June 2014, the charts have become granular and stagnant, with fewer new acts breaking through. And you shouldn’t change rules for extreme cases Martin Talbot, Official Charts CompanyĮd Sheeran’s total chart domination this week – all 16 songs on his album ÷ are in the Top 20 singles, and all of his three albums are in the Top 5 albums – will be the first time in years, save the odd Christmas chart battle, that most of us have had a clue what’s going on in the Top 40. Most music fans had a point at which the charts ceased to be a key reference point for music – mine was around 2002 – but since the demise of Top of the Pops in 2006 and the introduction of streaming, there have been fewer and fewer reasons for anyone to jump on in the first place.
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