Should the UK Singles Chart include streaming data?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/18/bbc-radio-1-top-40-streaming-plays-spotify

David Joseph, the chief executive of Universal Music, the UK's biggest music company, has said that the top 40 risked becoming irrelevant if it did not include streaming.

It is expected the streams will be "weighted" so they account for less than a paid-for download in the charts, to prevent purchased music being swamped by streaming sites such as Spotify and Deezer.

But it remains to be seen how much weight the revamped chart will give to a stream of a song as opposed to a purchase, whether as a download or CD.

Top 10 most streamed tracks on Spotify UK in 2013

Pompeii – Bastille
Get Lucky – Daft Punk
Let Her Go – Passenger
Radioactive – Imagine Dragons
Can't Hold Us – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
Thrift Shop – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Wake Me Up – Avicii
Ho Hey – The Lumineers
La La La – Naughty Boy

Top 10 selling singles of 2013, according to the Official Charts Company

Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
Get Lucky – Daft Punk
Wake Me Up – Avicii
Let Her Go – Passenger
La La La – Naughty Boy
Roar – Katy Perry
Thrift Shop – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Just Give Me A Reason – Pink
Counting Stars – Onerepublic
Mirrors – Justin Timberlake

What's the reasoning not to? UK charts have always been based on sales, not airplay? And streams are in that nebulous not-airplay / not-sales category?

well, yes. They're not sales therefore a huge change to the charts.

not really bothered about this - i guess the arguments against are a) the use of streaming to check out music through curiosity, not actual enthusiasm - a spotify play doesn't necessarily count as an upvote, b) mad fanbases trying to game the system. honestly not overly concerned about b), and i get the vague impression a) is less common on spotify than youtube?

But people do have to pay to access Spotify, so it is kinda...

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Will it be official vevo plays only counted or will it be a system that allows harlem shake style user generated hits from plays via multiple sources?

The number of times I bought a physical copy of an album or single only through curiosity, not enthusiasm, and found I didn't like it, can I please get my money back and have it struck off the charts, plz?

Up until now, a seperate chart has been compiled for streaming of songs
Is there a link to the latest one of these?

Sounds like a good idea (and anything's better than an airplay based chart) but I reserve the right to change my mind when I see what's currently #1 on the streamers' chart ;-)

obviously fuck vevo but the latter imo would be a terrible thing.

I've always hated the idea of airplay being included but this is obv a different thing but I am not sure I like the idea at all.

The Harlem Shake scenario where YouTube memes count is the one to be avoided. It was absurd when Kanye's Gone entered the US charts just because it soundtracked a viral video.

must be easier to 'fix' by labels or whoever than in the old days of chart hyping etc.

one thing that will change one presumes is that rock/indie type stuff will feature in the chart more. indie/rock kids don't buy singles as much these days (compared to albums) and if they do it's more often on vinyl etc as opposed to iTunes but actual plays are a different matter.

The number of times I bought a physical copy of an album or single only through curiosity, not enthusiasm, and found I didn't like it, can I please get my money back and have it struck off the charts, plz?

much less likely you'd have bought something you violently hated out of curiosity though? like, so many people must have checked out the robin thicke or lily allen videos last year just to see what the fuss was about, guessing (correctly) they'd probably hate them

UK Singles Chart shd be voted for by a panel including Will.I.Am, Simon Frith, the sitting Home Secretary and Dave Lee Travis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

and yeah NO AIRPLAY CHARTS EVER

only download chart i see there is http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/chart/downloads

at all costs we must ensure the charts do not just reflect what the most people are listening to

the chart was always about what the public were buying not what the record labels wanted radio to play. Fuck airplay charts forever.

Where's all the metal, eh ۩?

http://www.officialcharts.com/singles-download-chart/

http://www.officialcharts.com/album-download-chart/

http://www.officialcharts.com/official-streaming-chart/

"the public" = limited sample of shoppers within certain shops, "what they were buying" = except when we change the rules of what counts as a single every 3 months or so

http://www.officialcharts.com/scottish-singles-chart/

still, there probably won't be any way for record companies to game the download system, just like there was no way for them to game the shop purchase system

#7
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oh scotlandpaws

what is this?
http://www.officialcharts.com/catalogue-singles-chart/

'catalogue' is anything from 6 months ago or more. i think.

ahh ok

was depressing seeing songs like angels and wonderwall on there

but good to see Yes Sir I Can Boogie in the Top 10! has that been in an advert or soemthing i wonder.

Pretty sure that song has been on adverts every year since it was made tbh

I heard it on an advert last night but wasn't in the room so didn't catch what it was

Should the UK Singles Chart be compiled by somebody other than the "Official" Charts Company, should be the more pertinent question.

is there someone better out there?

I'd give it a go.

To easy to abuse, get bots to spam links and a bunch of idiots will click

Then again, we could place some ILXors from the comps

The main argument for including streaming but not including radio is the obvious one: that streaming is as much a consumer choice (LOL) as a purchase, while radio programming is still programmed and top-down. I never understood radio-play based charts, it not just seemed like putting the cart before the horse, but then measuring the driver instead of the speed of the cart.

the billboard charts are ostensibly designed to measure what people are listening to, so from that point of view including airplay figures is a perfectly sensible thing to do.

yeah if you argue that the broadcast media has too much influence over what its audience listens to then the next step argument is just to say that stuff people download/stream/buy physical copies of has been heavily influenced by broadcast media too

Streaming is the main type of Music consumation these days. And even though streaming data does slow Down the chart a good bit (unsurprisingly), it would be pointless not to include them.

Personally I'd include radio as well, but I do see the point about the consumer actively choosing what to listen to.

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lol a song just debuted in the billboard hot 100 top 10 based almost solely on youtube views for a viral clothing ad. (it also sold 10k, up from "a negligible amount" the previous week.)