2023 Christmas No.1

It's been explained to me multiple times, but I still find the Amazon exclusive thing baffling.
 
Who pops on "Do They Know It's Christmas" for a Christmas party??? I know, I know, playlists etc but come on.
 
I distinctly remember being at an office party where people were singing 'Feed The World' while people went around throwing dozens of sausage rolls and emptying dishes of crisps into rubbish bags.
 
lolly said:
I distinctly remember being at an office party where people were singing 'Feed The World' while people went around throwing dozens of sausage rolls and emptying dishes of crisps into rubbish bags.
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I’ve always been a bit envious of some of the office parties you see on the tv that take place in the actual office. I have never worked in an office. Do they ACTUALLY HAPPEN?
 
Rita said:
I’ve always been a bit envious of some of the office parties you see on the tv that take place in the actual office. I have never worked in an office. Do they ACTUALLY HAPPEN?
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I only remember it happening once, very soon after I started working in the early 90s.

It was probably every stereotype you imagine (people photocopying their arses, furtive fumbling behind filing cabinets), but you absolutely have nothing to be envious of.
 
lolly said:
I distinctly remember being at an office party where people were singing 'Feed The World' while people went around throwing dozens of sausage rolls and emptying dishes of crisps into rubbish bags.
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:octy:
 
lolly said:
I only remember it happening once, very soon after I started working in the early 90s.

It was probably every stereotype you imagine (people photocopying their arses, furtive fumbling behind filing cabinets), but you absolutely have nothing to be envious of.
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Yes, I always associate it with that sort of time mainly from seeing them happen on tv. I always wondered if a lot of things would get damaged though with all the alcohol and expensive computer equipment.
 
I mean, I can totally see why people would stream the Glee version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' at a party. It's handled with all the sensitivity and respect for the original you'd expect.

 
VoR said:
It's been explained to me multiple times, but I still find the Amazon exclusive thing baffling.
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Amazon basically cheats to get their new Christmas songs popular. Record companies have to beg Spotify and Apple to put new Christmas songs on their big playlists, and those playlists still favour the classic songs which are predominantly American. The classic songs are capped at half streams. But Amazon UK can just put their new songs from British artists on their own playlists and force people to listen to them, whether they like it or not. They can get away with it because they know millions of UK households have Amazon Prime and an Alexa or Echo, which comes with free Amazon Music.
 
And I guess that's exactly how Ellie Goulding got #1 a few years ago. All those people asking Alexa to play pretty much any playlist got River on their new Echo, whether or not they even knew it existed.

Who is in Sam Ryder's corner to plead Spotify for a pimp slot?
 
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Last Christmas tracking 46% up on last week on Spotify. And 25% up on the same day last year.
 
MegaDolly said:
Amazon basically cheats to get their new Christmas songs popular. Record companies have to beg Spotify and Apple to put new Christmas songs on their big playlists, and those playlists still favour the classic songs which are predominantly American. The classic songs are capped at half streams. But Amazon UK can just put their new songs from British artists on their own playlists and force people to listen to them, whether they like it or not. They can get away with it because they know millions of UK households have Amazon Prime and an Alexa or Echo, which comes with free Amazon Music.
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But when Sam Ryder gets Christmas number one he’ll totally have earned it, right?
 
Wham dropping a 7" and a CD single this year - ACR reset and therefore #1 incoming?
 
Fairytale Of New York climbs from #53 to #18 this week. Lots of other Christmas songs obviously also climbing the chart, but Fairytale leapfrogged quite a few (Kelly Clarkson, Shakin' Stevens, Sam Ryder, Ariana Grande and Bobby Helms), so I guess that's the result of iTunes sales yesterday. Indeed it was the #2 on downloads (#4 sales) for the week. Mariah was next closest Christmas song at #13 (#17 sales).
 
lolly said:
Is this an annual thing now? Or I'm sure it's at least the third time I recall them doing it fairly recently, on vinyl at least.
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I thought that too, I was sure they'd done a red vinyl 7" at some stage. I'm guessing that having prepared all the masters for the singles box sets that came out earlier in the year, doing a breakout of LC was a low cost no brainer.
 
And next year will be the 40th anniversary, so I don't see them ignoring that.

I can well imagine it becoming an annual thing, like Abba's Happy New Year.
 
Spotify streams Dec 1st

#1 Wham! 1.004m
#2 Mariah 0.967m
#3 Brenda Lee 0.859m
#4 The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl 0.694m
#5 Michael Bublé 0.691m
#6 Bobby Helms 0.649m
#7 Ariana Grande 0.612m
(#8 Jack Harlow 0.542m)
#9 Andy Williams 0.516m
#10 Kelly Clarkson 0.504m

#34 Leona 0.242m
#90 Kylie 0.130m

Streams are way up on the corresponding Friday last year - Wham! up 37% and Mariah 34%. The Pogues up 92%.
 
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The biggest Christmas playlist order on Spotify

#1 Brenda Lee
#2 Mariah
#3 Wham
#4 Bobby Helms
#5 Michael Bublé

The Pogues are at #28, so it looks like people are more actively searching for them.
 
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Sam Ryder's You're Christmas To Me climbed to #23 this week to become his second biggest hit, based on being #45 on streaming alone - obviously benefiting hugely from not being on ACR like the vast majority of other Christmas tracks.

As an Amazon exclusive it's the first track you're offered if you ask Alexa to play Christmas music. It's on the soundtrack to Prime's Your Christmas Or Mine 2 which is out next week (his Jingle Bells was on the first film last year), so I suspect Amazon will be pushing it even harder in the next couple of weeks.

He must have a decent chance of top ten at least, looking at how Christmas streaming numbers are up year on year, and he isn't going to have his totals halved.
 
Spotify streams December 2nd

#1 Wham! 1.162m
#2 Mariah 1.126m
#3 Brenda Lee 1.072m
#4 Bobby Helms 0.838m
#5 Michael Bublé 0.828m
#6 The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl 0.756m
#7 Ariana Grande 0.726m
#8 Andy Williams 0.669m
#9 Dean Martin 0.614m
#10 Michael Bublé 0.606m

Jack Harlow the highest non Christmas song at #17.

Kylie #61, 173k. Padam Padam peaked at #21 on Spotify with 175k.
 
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Office Xmas party season has well and truly begun. The first Xmas lunch in our place was Friday just past.

Also, it turns out that The Krackpots single is actually great. Their usual audience of wronguns won;t show up tho' because they're not getting a sweary word or a nonce allegation into the top 10.
 
lolly said:
Sam Ryder's You're Christmas To Me climbed to #23 this week to become his second biggest hit, based on being #45 on streaming alone - obviously benefiting hugely from not being on ACR like the vast majority of other Christmas tracks.

As an Amazon exclusive it's the first track you're offered if you ask Alexa to play Christmas music. It's on the soundtrack to Prime's Your Christmas Or Mine 2 which is out next week (his Jingle Bells was on the first film last year), so I suspect Amazon will be pushing it even harder in the next couple of weeks.

He must have a decent chance of top ten at least, looking at how Christmas streaming numbers are up year on year, and he isn't going to have his totals halved.
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I noted James Masterton mentioned the song on his blog this week and made reference to Amazon:

Ever since the shock charge of Ellie Goulding's River to No.1 on the last chart of 2019 Amazon have been slightly more circumspect as to where they place their seasonal exclusives in their own playlists. Still, the advance of Ryder and Smith only demonstrates the sheer force of numbers Alexa-powered speakers can command.
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I wonder whether someone at the Official Charts Company had a quiet word because, in principle, Amazon should have been able to emulate the success of River year in, year out. But that did veer perilously close to chart fixing.

I'd be quite happy for Sam Ryder to get another top ten out of it, though. You're Christmas To Me is basically a derivative of most recent modern Christmas hits, but it's not objectionable.
 
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We'll see how their 'circumspection' plays out. They seem to be playing quite aggressively already if it's already in the top ten Christmas songs on the chart, courtesy of Amazon streaming (and no sales) only.

'River' was #57 in the corresponding chart of 2019 (the first chart in December), so I assume they had a softer approach then and then ramped playlist promotion for the last of the year.

I don't see them easing up on Sam before Christmas, because the song itself is promotion for their own film.
 
I'll say it again... that Jorja Smith song is terrible. I can't believe many people are actively asking for it on Amazon Music or Alexa or whatever. It's so messed up.
 
MegaDolly said:
These will drop quite a lot but in this week’s first look:

#4 Sam (#10 last week)
#9 Jorja (#18 last week)

:eyes:
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I suspect Sam may end up just outside the top ten, and Jorja the top 20, but we'll see. It still augurs well for them both having solid Christmas hits in the 2 or 3 weeks after.

Now we're in December I think more people will be playing Christmas music at home, so the drop off may not be as bad from the first midweeks as the last couple of weeks.
 
Yes, Amazon release their streaming numbers on time, but it's just funny how quickly they're climbing.

Hoping Wham! get Christmas #1 now.
 
I noticed today that Ellie’s River was added to Spotify at some point. Despite being a recent Christmas-adjacent #1 hit, it still has <900,000 total streams, which is probably a good indication of how many people ever actually listen to it by choice.

(To be fair, I assume Spotify wouldn’t place it prominently on any of their festive playlists even now. But even so…)
 
Looking at spotify there's a four track single of River which was released only Friday. But also a single track version of it with a release date of October 2021, so presumably that streaming total is from then, as I doubt it's managed 900k since Friday.

The four track single also has a version of O Holy Night. Someone else listen and report back, please?
 
Christmas Charity singles are like covid strains. You get rid of ONE and along comes ANOTHER
 
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