charts with or without downloads

[blashey]

did u prefer the old chart system or do you prefer the new?

i personally think putting downloads in finally killed the chart

[Paul]

The chart cannot do its job of reflecting what people buy without including downloads. Just look at the physical chart and how different it is to the combined chart

[Chris]

Prefer it with actually.

[Deleted]

i love pop music so id say the old chart is best for me if you look at all the pop songs that dont get top 40 the will allways be 20 top in the physical chart but the chart these days is 'ok'

[JukeBoxJury]

I like the way that it allows tracks to climb the charts like back in the old days, e.g. when radio airplay was less centralised and it could take several weeks before everybody had heard of a particular song. I also like the opportunities that it offers for smaller bands, who are able to chart on download alone when they could maybe not afford the cost of releasing a physical version.

What I don't like, however, is the total mess it's made of the chart itself - for instance, the British Hit Singles book has pretty much had to be thrown out of the window now that random tracks are making random appearances throughout the chart on a weekly basis.

I would've much liked it if there was a "better" way of doing this - e.g. bands having to 'nominate' singles, and only THOSE downloads are chart-eligible. So a band's next single could chart early on downloads alone, but you wouldn't have half the Arctic Monkeys album clogging up the Top 150 just because they happened to release the album this week.

As an indicator of what music the public are buying, it's undeniably a more accurate measurement though.

[ManicKangaroo]

It would be if they tightened up the "unlimited download versions" rule that distorts the truth

[marcus]

jukeboxjury said:

What I don't like, however, is the total mess it's made of the chart itself - for instance, the British Hit Singles book has pretty much had to be thrown out of the window now that random tracks are making random appearances throughout the chart on a weekly basis.

Totally agree, the nominating idea is something I thought of at the time the OCC first mentioned the new rules .

[Deleted]

did they scrap the how long a song can be rule. i remember some song a few years back was too long and it got scrapped from the chart ?

[blashey]

anything goes now sure green day simpsons theme just over a minute charted

[Mart!n]

I actually prefer it this way to be honest, if it was still Physical Robyn would still be #1 this week with just 8,316 sales which is pretty low, that really shows the state of the physical market

[ManicKangaroo]

8316 was only her CD sales - she would have vinyl sales on top of that and may not have been #1 physically

[Scott]

ben2606 said:

did they scrap the how long a song can be rule. i remember some song a few years back was too long and it got scrapped from the chart ?

I don't think there's ever been a rule about how long the actual song is, it was just how long the CD is.

[Deleted]

spiker said:

ben2606 said:

did they scrap the how long a song can be rule. i remember some song a few years back was too long and it got scrapped from the chart ?

I don't think there's ever been a rule about how long the actual song is, it was just how long the CD is.

ah ok must of been the cd then

[borneoman]

I think downloads have to be in, but I also think that the rules for download should be changed and be more strict. It's not fair that physical singles have so many restrictions (number of tracks, length, stickers) but there is absolutely no restrictions for downloads.

What doesn't make sense to me is that if you buy a single with 4 mixes it counts as 1 sale, but if you download the 4 mixes it counts as 4 sales.