New rules to be introduced to the Official Singles Chart from July 2017

No artist could ever take over the US Billboard Top 10 like Ed Sheeran did in the UK because we count all metrics: Radio airplay, Streaming and Sales. Because the UK Charts fail to consider all methods of consumption including radio and are manipulating points as well, the chart is no longer representative of consumption or popularity, as it should be.

Good move by the OCC! Nice to know they reacted to the criticism of the format. IMHO streaming isn't really 'sales' so I doubt anyone can come up with a perfect singles chart based on 88 percent streaming, but these new changes should help. And we'll never have another Ed Sheeran 'entire album' in the singles chart. Thank God for that!

Good thing they're trying to stop the charts from being a stagnant mess. It was descending into irrelevance.

The charts are now totally pointless - totally manipulated to include new music. If it's selling or being streamed it's in - if it isn't it shouldn't be there.

Sweet, now not even the UK chart isnt going to be an accurate representation of the most popular songs.

I think one of the issue here is that it is called "Official SINGLES Chart". It should be renamed as "THE OFFICIAL CHARTS" from now on. haha

Also, does the older song rule means it will also affect The Killers's oddly-popular-hit-in-the-year-2017, "Mr. Brightside"?

In my opinion the UK singles charts cease to exist from July 7, 2017 on. They will be replaced by a sort of trend chart which cannot be called 'official' anymore. It's a nightmare instead! The new chart will not reflect the current commercial success of songs 1:1, especially of songs longer than 9 weeks on the charts and declining. But there is such a good solution to the problem of a boring chart. It is so not understandable the OCC does not see this solution: for every streaming account only 150 user-generated streams of a song will count for the Singles Charts. Every additional usergenerated stream will not count for the charts. All song streams which are not usergenerated must not count for the charts (e.g. listening to playlists). Quite a number of people here and elsewhere agree with me to implement this solution. It is easy, understandable for everyone and advantageous for newcomers.

I am totally against this change. The irony is that the artists having multiple entries has really only become an issue since the OCC decided to include 'songs' rather than actual singles. Furthermore, the stagnation has been brought about by the inclusion of streaming and this is affecting the turnover in the charts. [So, I would suggest that, if streaming is to remain as part of the chart, the ratio is wrong.] As an example, last year there were 10 No. 1s on the 'Official Chart' (i.e. including streaming). On the Sales Chart, there were twice as many, making that chart twice as interesting. Streaming seems to be responsible for certain songs spending inordinate amounts of weeks on the chart.

Also, all these changes - past and present - create such an unlevel playing field that any chart statistics are - and have been for some time - completely irrelevant. So the latest one is that Ed Sheeran will go into the record books for his chart earlier this year and that record will remain forever unchallenged. And, as annoying as it was to have Sheeran occupy 16 of the Top 20 places, at least it was an interesting phenomenon.

I've been a chart fan for over 50 years. My interest dwindled with the inclusion of all 'songs' and dwindled further with the inclusion of streaming 3 years ago. As of July 2017, with this latest change, I'm done. It will no longer be a chart of what people are buying; it will no longer even be a chart of what people are listening to. It will be a chart based on OCC manipulation rules. Not impressed and not interested.

At least something is happening to change things up but I still believe the simplest thing would be to make it a rule that a song has to be released as a single (either physical or download) to be eligible for the chart?

I agree you should stop messing with the charts. The Official Top 100 Singles should be the 100 most popular tracks of the last 7 days which the public have bought whther physical or digital. The problem is streaming. Stop including streaming.

I think the only logic thing to do is put a streaming limit.
If you count 1000 streams as 1 copy sold when an user reaches 1.000 streams you shouldn't count his streams of that song anymore. Especially when you convert the streams into real sales for the album! If I buy an album and i listen to it 1 million times you don't count it, if someone don't buy an album but he decide to listen to it 1 million times on Spotify you count his 1 millions streams. What's the sense of all it?
And another important thing to do is: when two songs have the same number of streams but the first has more uniques listeners than the second the first one is for logic the most popular song!
If I don't know Arctic Monkeys release a new song weeks after a new Bieber's song even if the song has more unique listeners you give more points to Bieber cause his fans are teens and a unique user listen to it 20 times at day.

Scrap the charts. they are pointless now.

moving the goalposts yet again and too late.all the accolades/achievements like 'most weeks on chart','most weeks at number 1' 'most hits in the top 40' etc have all been askewed by different rules being introduced at various times in chart history. i'm not against these changes,i'm interested to see how they impact the look of the chart and maybe,finally,some of the lesser known acts might get their chance to shine.

Streaming has heavily increased over the past few years? It's because Bieber, Sheeran and 1D fangirls learned how to manipulate the charts data since the streaming was included. And that's the biggest problem that needs to be fixed.

It's a singles chart, so just let official singles enter the chart?

Will there be a Consumption Top 100 or something like that similar to how there was a Sales Top 100 once the now-to-be-modded model was introduced? It seems a major disservice to make this chart so arbitrary, especially the formula change for losing songs, that sounds like something I'd do on a fan chart.

I think this is a good idea but just wondering will the streaming ratio even be applied to number 1 singles if they decline in sales for 3 weeks but stay at number 1? And can singles have the cap removed if they start selling on high numbers again e.g. Ariana Grande's One Last Time

Thank God!Although u should only allow OFFICIAL SINGLES on the OFFICIAL SINGLES CHART!
Why its so hard??!

I don't understand why all songs can't have the same streaming rules

What a ridiculous implementation. So the UK charts will no longer be a true representation of the most popular songs but a list of selected tunes as curated by you? Yes, when Ed Sheeran took over the chart with his entire album, it was annoying... but at least it was an accurate reflection of the most popular tracks in the land at that point! And changing the ratio from 150 to 300 for the streaming of 'older' tracks is fair how? The changes are completely misguided and fail to address what the chart was originally created to demonstrate. Massive failure by the OCC.

This is like fixing a leaky pipe by sticking a bucket under it to catch the drips. Try actually solving the problem itself by taking this fake stream-sale equivalence out of the main chart; they are fundamentally different.

@certain commenters, sales and streams CAN mix together on a chart. look at billboard. look at tracklisten. look at SNEP. these are just three of many national charts that include sales and streaming. and they're not changing their rules at all.

the issue here is that the OCC still hasn't added video streams to their charts. had they added video streams the first time they added streams to the chart, we wouldn't have to worry about things like Drake's More Life and Stormzy's Gang Signs and Prayer (ie their songs debuting all over the place on the chart). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

maybe they should actually add airplay as well. just put it at a low %, though.

Bring back a singles chart based purely on sales. Remove the streams to a separate streams/airplay chart. Don't try to mix the two!

Unfortunately this is what happens when you try and combine two different things - sales and streaming - in one chart. You need frequent tweaks to the rules to try to iron out problems.

It seems to me that the biggest problem is that streams of a whole album count towards both the singles and albums charts. I find it hard to believe that it is not possible to devise a method of excluding streams of a whole album (or most of an album) from the singles chart. The method won't be perfect, but it should make it more difficult for the chart to be dominated by songs from one album. On the other hand, if that is what people are buying (rather than streaming), shouldn't the singles chart reflect that?

I don't like the three song limit at all. If sales between the third and fourth most popular tracks are close, this could lead to songs dropping out from a high position one week and then returning the following week.

Or...? Just make it so only singles can get on the charts? Problem solved? We're never going to get the next amazing artist if their only allowed THREE songs on the charts because no one can highlight their dominance. Wrong decision which I hope will be changed in the near future

So a song could have its steaming ratio dramatically reduced while still at number one if it's sales have declined for a few weeks?!

If you went back to a sales only situation based on physical and downloads only there would be no need for these addittional changes. The whole OCC charts are the laughing stock of the World. Change after change after change. Let's go back to how the charts used to always be - a system that was simple and easy to understand. These proposed changes come way too late and just add more confusion.

In my humble opinion, only official single releases should count towards the chart, not album tracks. After all, this is a SINGLES chart, right? The new rules are interesting, and I'm curious to see how the chart will look like, under the new methodology. I think, it's a step in the right direction. I still remember the complaints when Ed Sheeran had 16 songs in the Top 20. It's a brave new world for the OCC. Bravo!

Yes thank you OC. You have finally woken up. Don't like the 'older song streaming ratio' thing as much.

Manipulation at its best. If the point is to create a chart with fake information, here some more suggestions for you:
- debuting artists will have a 1:20 ratio for their streams with their breakthrough song
- artists who already bagged #1s in their careers will have a 1:500 ratio for streams
- after 2 weeks at #1, streams will be exclude from the song, if it remains #1, after 2 more weeks its sales will be excluded too
- artists under 18 years old will have their sales multiplied by 2
- artists who never made the top 10 will have one 'bonus option' that when triggered will multiply its charts units by 3
- Christmas songs that aren't on their first year will have their streams counted as 1:1000
- Posthumous songs will be excluded from chart to make sure new hits stay visible when a legend passes away
- April 1st chart will be entirely elected by the OCC independently of sales and streams occurring that week

It will be in-line with your current changes and make sure to maintain the attractiveness of your website.

Wow, this is interesting! Where can I read about the changes (streaming ratio etc.) in more detail?