I have argued for some time that the current UK charts done by the Official Charts Company are manufactured to make the charts represent those based on the past, when a single copy sold had the power to effect the chart. But since the introduction of the 12 inch single that has ceased to represent the chart truly. The situation got worse with the introduction of the download and went off the scale with streaming.
So what has changed. Well back in the early days records were priced all the same just about. So adding up the copies was the easiest way to measure popularity of the records. But the 12 inch single was more expensive than the standard 7 inch. So the people who bought these was forking out more money than the other people buying 7 inch. When downloads came around the price went down to 99p. But by then 7 inch singles were nearly £4. So now the 7 inch was being underrepresented by the price difference. Even before this happened the price of 7 inch records was being reduced down to encourage high first week sales. With dealers offered deals on the price of records. They could sell so many at reduced price, if they sold so many at full price. This lead to some singles entering at the top of the charts when they were first issued. Due to a very low price. The download did the same. And when iTunes issued singles for just 59p instead, when the Real Chart ended in 2020 it was who was top of the cheap that week.
Streaming created a bigger problem. To get a representation of the copies sold system, the OCC made it that so many streams equals one download sale. They have had to adjust this level from time to time to keep the same level of copies sold. They also made it impossible for anyone who streams records to actually have enough streams to make one copy or the equivalent download. Which meant if you download a record or purchase a single, you can influence the chart, but if you stream you can't, at least not on your own. The next problem with streaming is that once you have bought a record, you do not need to buy it again. But you never buy a streamed record, it's like renting. You constantly pay. But this means that streamed records sales only slowly die off. Till the public are fed up with it. So to get round this problem after so many weeks the OCC limits the streams of the records and put them at a much lower level. This adjustment generally takes out the record at number one. So very long runs at the top of the charts are reduced. This adjustment can be reset if the record company request it. Or some special event happens.
There is of course another way to prevent these effects and return the chart to the public chart, not manufactured to fit a copy based system. And that is to count retail sales not copies.
How: Well you count what the public pay for music. The more money you pay the higher the chart position.
So a download would be 99p or 59p or whatever price the retailer sells them at.
A 7 inch single would be whatever the price is charged. Some of these can be much higher too.
The same with the 12 inch single and the CD single etc.
Streaming is more complex. Most sites charge around £10.99 a month for the service. Trying to work out how many people stream the records per month is complex, but the average family streams 2,000 tracks per month. Of course the charts company would need to establish how much a typical stream for each site costs. But based on the monthly cost and 2,000 streams it works out at £0.005495 per stream. Or £0.005p per stream.
With these figures you can use all the streams for each site and add the sales up. Not the number of streams. Then you add on the price of each record, CD, download to the total.
Such a system would have produced a new number one on the OCC chart this week
28 February 2025 - 6 March 2025
(1) Kendrick Lamar ~ Not Like Us
36 Oasis ~ Whatever
The above is the current chart for the OCC
However thanks to the figures supplied by Alan Jones, I can show that under the retail system the number one would change.
The Streams of Kendrick show 2,791,53 on Spotify for the week. Other sites do list them, but Spotify has the most. The streams thus amount to £13,957.51p
The OCC says he sold 777 downloads at 0.99p = £769,23p
Now the Oasis record The OCC says it sold 11465 on 7 inch. The price is not fixed but the average seems to be £15.95p So £182,866.75p
Plus 684 downloads at 99p £677.16p
So you can see that Oasis would have topped the chart instead of being 36!
Unfortunately the OCC don't reveal the breakdown of the records and only Alan Jones tells you some times, but not all the time.
Remember these are based on what the public pay. Not on what an artist get in terms of royalties.
Update 23 March 2025
