UK Charts/ Midweeks 2019 (2 Viewers)

[Jark]

Spotify only dictates taste to a degree. The control they have is more or less limited to what they playlist heavily but people still have autonomy. The Amazon thing feels like more overt manipulation.

 

[Sheena]

Spotify only dictates taste to a degree. The control they have is more or less limited to what they playlist heavily but people still have autonomy. The Amazon thing feels like more overt manipulation.

This. Because it’s been done with one individual song, rather than Spotify’s playlists.

At least it just surely make them look at the way charts work now though.

 

[lolly]

Absolutely, but it's only really an extension of the same thing - or exploiting a weakness. Amazon have just played the game and won.

 

[Diddy]

Can someone explain why it’s manipulation? It won just because it’s new, right?

 

[octophone]

Essentially they've played a wonky system and won.

No record was ever excluded from the charts because it wasn't stocked in enough shops so it's difficult to see how they can legislate for this.

 

[Diddy]

That’s the only thing?

What about all those download only singles back in the day? They ended up in and we were fine with that. Especially instead of the old Chasing Cars killer rule that tried to force physical releases to continue

 

[lolly]

I don't really see download only singles as a parallel at all - that was just a different format, wasn't it?

 

[Diddy]

I don't really see download only singles as a parallel at all - that was just a different format, wasn't it?

i thought Octy was saying people were saying it was a fix because it was only available through via one channel. Not the cleanest comparison but I couldn’t really get my head around the problem.

I don’t see why Amazon having an exclusive is gaming the system. Especially if it was fifth or whatever on their playlist and Mariah was first on it.

the BS is squarely with the OCC

 

[lolly]

No, I don't have a problem with the amazon exclusivity angle, either. And the only way they favoured it was by slotting it alongside songs that had a different streaming ratio - but clearly that's not of their making. I guess the manipulation is more clear because with exclusivity it favoured only ONE song.

I've seen a few Mariah fans complaining about her suffering last year and this year because other acts have been 'favoured' (Eliie this year, Ava Max last due to some video playlisting or somesuch), which is a bit rich, considering the fact that she is placed first or second on every playlist is such a huge part in her repeated success year after year.

In short I agree though - this is all due to the OCC.

 

[Raining on Me]

I was looking at the "rate the number ones of 2019" thread feeling all pleased (and surprised) that I knew most of them until it got to Ellie. What the fuck?

I didn't realize Amazon's streaming service was that big to have so much of an influence on its own but I guess that's all Alexa related so it makes sense, sort of. But still I'd have assumed any regular chart songs available on all platforms would have outdone her like Stormzy, Dua etc given she's come from nowhere and I doubt many people were even aware of its existence. That's the system for you though, I knew playlists were a fucker for being included and finally it's been exploited, deliberately or otherwise.

But it is just an anomaly and it's a weird time of year so hardly a big deal. It's quite nice to have a "shock" number one for once. I thought there would be a lot of these random chart toppers in the in-betweeny week but apparently not...

And yeah, when I think back to Westlife creaming their 5th number one from an album I don't feel too aggrieved. Well, it is worse because it's essentially a passive hit that hasn't been sought out on its own merits. Maybe they'll finally look at playlists now and how they affect things. They're not much different to having radio airplay affect the chart if the vast majority are listening to it in the background. The trouble is how do you even begin to monitor it?

 

[octophone]

i thought Octy was saying people were saying it was a fix because it was only available through via one channel. Not the cleanest comparison but I couldn’t really get my head around the problem.

I wasn't really saying anything except that the OCC can't do anything about the fact that Amazon had Ellie as an exclusive and put her onto their biggest passive playlist. They can't go "well, you have to be on Amazon and Spotify and Apple etc".

 

[Diddy]

Probably for the best

isn’t there some massive conflict of interest between the head OCC guy and Spotify? Did I remember that right?