UK OCC Charts Midweeks Thread: 2021

[Artoo]

There's def a commercial licence you can get for Spotify. I read about it last night unless that's only in the US. I just know a lot of places I go to use Spotify to stream music hooked up to mini speakers.

I think have to have a commercial Spotify account too. But you need to have a licence otherwise you open a whole can of worms for your business. As I said, it’s a long time since I had to look into it.

A shop can presumably only contribute 10 streams a day per song - but do we know if anything played through a commercial account even contributes to the charts?

[Blondini]

Wednesday Top 40 Update
Source: Music Week
Missing Data: unknown

Singles

1 Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas (46,265) *
2 Adele - Easy On Me (31,551)
3 Wham! - Last Christmas (27,736)
4 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (27,012)
5 Gayle - ABCDEFU (20,575)

6-10
6 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York
7 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
8 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas
9 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

11-20
11 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?
13 Elton John - Step Into Christmas
16 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
18 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
19 Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

21-30
22 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas
23 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
25 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas
27 Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime ^

31-40
31 Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock ^
32 Leona Lewis - One More Sleep ^
33 Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody ^
34 John & Yoko The Plastic Ono Band - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ^
36 The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride ^
37 Olivia Dean - The Christmas Song *
38 Michael Bublé - Holly Jolly Christmas ^
39 SZA - I Hate U *

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Albums

1 Adele - 30 (48,344)
2 Ed Sheeran - = (22,811)
3 JLS - 2.0 (21,799) *
4 ABBA - Voyage (16,894)
5 Michael Bublé - Christmas (9,159)

6-10
6 André Rieu & His Johann Strauss Orchestra - Happy Together
8 Little Mix - Between Us
9 The Lottery Winners - Something To Leave The House For *

11-20
16 Olivia Rodrigo - Sour
19 Volbeat - Servant Of The Mind *

21-30
21 Nirvana - Nevermind ^
28 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
30 Polo G - Hall Of Fame 2.0 *

31-40
35 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black ^
40 Michael Ball & Alfie Boe - Together At Christmas ^

[braindeadpj]

So without ACR Wham is still no.1, Mariah 2 and Ed and Elton at 3. Don't know whether Adele or the Pogues are at 4 as there's no data for the Pogues (except they are less than ~40,000)...

[huhu78]

Spotify has "Soundtrack your Brand" for public use but you cannot create special playlists for it. A user can switch on different "moods" or "themes" but cannot choose a special song which should be played, every song is chosen by the software. That really is bullsh*t.

[MadNuno]

As long as youu have a licence to put music on your shop it doesn't matter if you're playing Spotify or MP3s or CDs or Whatever.

Sure Spotify have that you can't play it if you're a business on their rules (like CDs also have) as you need to have a special licence to have it. But once you have it you can play it (this happens in UK and in most European countries as well). In some countries you do need to pay for 2 different licences to play songs on shops from private library (this includes CDs, MP3, streaming, etc).

Some shops have special "radio channels" that pay to provide private playlists for shops by other companies but today most small shops (private and most small shops chains) use Spotify to play music (in UK too - I know from experience!). Spotify doesn't verify this and legally once the shop have the playing licence they can play from regular Spotify streaming just like they can play MP3 or CDs (if they have a paid Spotify account).

[Charter2000]

Imo it's no problem to have lots of christmas songs in the charts, what I dislike is that streaming services basically decide which christmas songs chart high by placing them in several of their top christmas playlists. I know, playlists are a difficult topic anyway but the weird thing about the christmas songs is that, since streaming became so big, (at least here in Germany) lots of songs have charted that never charted during the download era. Right now, there are 27 christmas "classics" in the german charts and 15 or them never charted during the download era but are now charting every year due to streaming. So my point is: Those tracks are only charting because they are on the top playlists and you probably could exchange them and people wouldn't play them anymore but the other tracks instead. In theory, Spotify is able to change the charts with just a few clicks by changing some songs in their christmas playlists.

[MadNuno]

It looks like Elton John and Ed Sheeran Christmas song despite being out of UK Spotify TOP 20 today (with around 220k streams) will remain at #01 on Official Charts.

On iTunes they are still selling almost 4 times the #02 song (that is "Cold Heart" 2 versions summed up) and #03 song (that is Ed Sheran with "Overpass Grafitti"). Adele song is #07 on iTunes with less than 1/5 of the sales for the #01 song but she is #03 on UK Spotify (380k streams) with just Wham! and Mariah Carey Christmas songs ahead of her (with 452k and 435k streams respectivelly) . On iTunes Wham! song is just #32 while Mariah Carey is at #08 right now.

[Robbie]

Imo it's no problem to have lots of christmas songs in the charts, what I dislike is that streaming services basically decide which christmas songs chart high by placing them in several of their top christmas playlists. I know, playlists are a difficult topic anyway but the weird thing about the christmas songs is that, since streaming became so big, (at least here in Germany) lots of songs have charted that never charted during the download era. Right now, there are 27 christmas "classics" in the german charts and 15 or them never charted during the download era but are now charting every year due to streaming. So my point is: Those tracks are only charting because they are on the top playlists and you probably could exchange them and people wouldn't play them anymore but the other tracks instead. In theory, Spotify is able to change the charts with just a few clicks by changing some songs in their christmas playlists.

It's basically the same in the UK. Some Christmas songs have become very popular under streaming in a way they never were on downloads. It does appear to be influenced by where songs appear on playlists.

[Artoo]

It's basically the same in the UK. Some Christmas songs have become very popular under streaming in a way they never were on downloads. It does appear to be influenced by where songs appear on playlists.

Whilst that’s true, we have to remember 15 years ago in the download era a lot of people also owned CDs, and most of us had a version of ‘Now Christmas’ which had almost everything you needed on it anyway.

But we did start to see the Christmas chart trend beginning in the download era, with songs like AIWFCIY creeping up the charts annually and without downloads and streaming, I don’t think anyone would have known just how beloved that song is here (I’d have thought Slade, Wizzard, Wham! more popular etc).

The UK midweeks does look very similar to Spotify’s Christmas playlist, but it’s not identical nor in the same order so user choice is still coming into play - Justin Bieber, Dean Martin and Sia are in the first ten tracks but aren’t in the top 40 in the official midweek.

I think with Christmas music people like the songs they like as it’s tradition, and I do think the charts - if not the positions - reflect what people would be listening to with or without streaming. Plus there’s only so much Christmas music, so Spotify are damned if so and damned if they don’t.

[MadNuno]

Whilst that’s true, we have to remember 15 years ago in the download era a lot of people also owned CDs, and most of us had a version of ‘Now Christmas’ which had almost everything you needed on it anyway.

True but before streaming album tracks that people listen to at home were never part of the SINGLES chart.

The SINGLES charts is becoming a joke. We even have TOP 10 hits now that are album tracks that apart from a few thousand people that listen to those albums on repeat none even heard those songs - how can they even be considered "hits". What's a hit on today's era?

The mixed up bettween albums / singles / listeners is making all the charts represent a completely different thing that represented before (especially the SINGLES CHART).

[Blondini]

Thursday Top 40 Update
Missing Data: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube (all for Wednesday) and Amazon Physical (Tue + Wed)

Singles

1 Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas (61.7k) *
2 Adele - Easy On Me (38.5k)
3 Wham! - Last Christmas (32.7k)
4 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (32.0k)
5 Gayle - ABCDEFU (25.7k)

6-10
6 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York
7 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
8 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
9 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

11-20
11 D-Block Europe feat. Central Cee - Overseas
13 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?
15 Elton John - Step Into Christmas
17 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
19 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
20 Andy Williams - It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

21-30
22 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas
24 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
26 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas
29 Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime ^

31-40
31 Leona Lewis - One More Sleep ^
32 Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock ^
33 Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody ^
35 John & Ono & The Plastic Ono Band - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ^
36 The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride ^
37 Olivia Dean - The Christmas Song *
39 SZA - I Hate U *
40 Michael Bublé - Holly Jolly Christmas ^

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Albums

1 Adele - 30 (54.5k)
2 Ed Sheeran - = (26.1k)
3 JLS - 2.0 (22.3k) *
4 ABBA - Voyage (18.8k)
5 Michael Bublé - Christmas (10.7k)

6-10
6 André Rieu & His Johann Strauss Orchestra - Happy Together
7 Little Mix - Between Us
9 Elton John - The Lockdown Sessions
10 The Lottery Winners - Something To Leave The House For *

11-20
15 Olivia Rodrigo - Sour
20 Volbeat - Servant Of The Mind *

21-30
24 Nirvana - Nevermind ^
30 Doja Cat - Planet Her

31-40
32 Polo G - Hall Of Fame 2.0 *
34 Arctic Monkeys - AM
38 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black ^

[Artoo]

True but before streaming album tracks that people listen to at home were never part of the SINGLES chart.

The SINGLES charts is becoming a joke. We even have TOP 10 hits now that are album tracks that apart from a few thousand people that listen to those albums on repeat none even heard those songs - how can they even be considered "hits". What's a hit on today's era?

The mixed up bettween albums / singles / listeners is making all the charts represent a completely different thing that represented before (especially the SINGLES CHART).

Downloads of album tracks were part of the singles chart in the download era, but of little consequence. I do think the singles chart should be for singles though - but that ship has sailed. Even though I dislike it, the three track limit works as it’s a rare act that gets a top ten from it.

[huhu78]

The UK midweeks does look very similar to Spotify’s Christmas playlist, but it’s not identical nor in the same order so user choice is still coming into play - Justin Bieber, Dean Martin and Sia are in the first ten tracks but aren’t in the top 40 in the official midweek.

Of course it's not the identical order. Nobody wants to hear the same songs in same order, so they play the paylist in shuffle/random mode.

[Artoo]

Of course it's not the identical order. Nobody wants to hear the same songs in same order, so they play the paylist in shuffle/random mode.

Nope, Spotify removed that option. Thank Adele.

[MadNuno]

Nope, Spotify removed that option. Thank Adele.

I still have it... am I the only one?


Adele sounded kind of crazy saying that... I mean... every CD player have random since before she was even born

[Robbie]

Nope, Spotify removed that option. Thank Adele.

The shuffle feature was turned off for artist albums. However it is still there for playlists.

[MadNuno]

The shuffle feature was turned off for artist albums. However it is still there for playlists.

I still have it on my tablet (and it works)... at least on the artists albums I listen to.

[Artoo]

The shuffle feature was turned off for artist albums. However it is still there for playlists.

[jszmiles]

Nope, Spotify removed that option. Thank Adele.

that was only for Adele's 30

[Robbie]

Artoo, It's working for me. Sometimes the shuffle option appears on the green play button. Sometimes it does not. If the latter, choose any track to play then click on the track (at the bottom of the screen). The shuffle button should then appear on the next screen.

Spotify Mobile / Android has some highly annoying quirks, one of them is the appearance or non-appearance of the shuffle button. Sometimes it's there on the main playlist page, sometimes it's not.

[huhu78]

Nope, Spotify removed that option. Thank Adele.

I did not try Adele's album but I still can shuffle every playlist, every album etc I tried yet.

[Blondini]

Official First Look Chart Update
Source: OCC / Radio 1

1 Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas
2 Wham! - Last Christmas
3 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
4 Adele - Easy On Me
5 Gayle - ABCDEFU
6 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York
7 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
8 George Ezra - Come On Home For Christmas
9 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
10 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

11 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?
12 Sam Fender - Seventeen Going Under
13 Elton John - Step Into Christmas
14 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
15 ArrDee - Flowers (Say My Name)
16 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me
17 Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
18 Olivia Dean - The Christmas Song
19 Chris Rea - Driving Home For Christmas
20 Ed Sheeran - Overpass Graffiti

[Robbie]

16/20 are Christmas themed tracks. Wham! seems to be replacing Mariah Carey as the top Christmas oldie these days.

[muzik_biz_wiz]

God I hate the charts at Christmas

[Charter2000]

I did not try Adele's album but I still can shuffle every playlist, every album etc I tried yet.

You can shuffle everything, what was changed is that the standard function of the green playbutton it not shuffle anymore for albums.