Official Singles Chart on 2/2/2018

Well based on Spotify streams alone it looks set to be dropping over the next few weeks. My prediction (again based on Spotify streams) is that Dua Lipa and Drake will be fighting for number 1 and given enough time IDGAF will get to number 1

Having a no 1 in the UK in the singles chart has absolutely NO IMPORTANCE any more - it has lost it's significance.

It does have importance, just a bit less than it used to have

Hey, at least it didn't hit #1!

:(

Hopefully it'll get picked up as the theme to an advert and come back to play at the correct end of the charts

that will be huge

80s best decade for pop music! Kids of today will never know what they missed out on. Hopefully some youngsters will listen to the great pop singles of the past. ☺

40 years ago better, Althia & Donna - Up town Top Ranking, Wings - Mull of Kintyre and two version of the Floral Dance priceless

Absolutely. I don't believe these streaming statistics, 7.6 million for Drake in one week from the UK? No way. That's 50000 "sales" from the off, and that's rubbish.

What makes sales more important than streaming? Streaming is the future, like it or not. Get used to it.

Streaming is basically the equivalant of airplay on the radio. So easy to fix. You can stream a tune all day long for nothing, whereas you only download a buy a physical record once.

Streaming sounds like a urinary problem. I can't stop streaming in my pants. I drink too much!

You can also download a song for free. People pirate TV shows and movies like crazy. You really don't think they do the same with music?

And honestly, you can download a song for free, but you can't stream a song for free. The OCC ignores almost all "free" streams, since most of those are video streams from YouTube. Drake got to the top on PAID STREAMS. But even if you're listening for free on Spotify, you're paying for the service by selling your data to advertisers. And some of your money goes to the record labels and artists. Can't say the same for pirates who download their music off random shady sites.

I do partly agree with you but nevertheless streaming is more important

I do agree that streams are easy to fix and indeed Drake's record label have probably manipulated his streams so that he can get a higher chart position but you can manipulate any platform, not just streaming.

I too believe that the streaming stats are manipulated, but remember any platform can be manipulated

However bad God's Plan is I would listen to it 100 times before listening to Strangers

Oh yeah.. streaming is the future? So what interest does an artist have for his song to be streamed one million times, and he doesn't get one penny? There is a gulf dividing the importance between actual phyiscal sales and streaming. The thing is that with streaming you don't get to pay anything to stream a song 20 times a day, while little kids and teenagers have to dish out some cash to physicallly by something, in any format.

People nevertheless use them and therefore are the future

r u kidding ? I dont pay any money for music nowadays.. In elder I used to buy a lot of cds

But the charts limit you to 10 streams per day per person. Meaning that you can only even contribute 7/15 of a sale per week from streaming. They can still be fixed by having multiple accounts, but streaming a song all day long makes no difference compared to streaming a song 10 times per day, which is a perfectly reasonable amount for people that listen to music a lot.
Just today I've listened to 'Fine Line' by Mabel 10 times, yesterday I listened to 'Passionfruit' by Drake 10 times, and the day before I listened to 'She Loves Control' by Camila Cabello 12 times. Almost every day I'll have a song that I listen to at least 10 times, and sometimes I have multiple song that I listen to more than 10 times or songs that I listen to way more than 10 times, sometimes 20, 30 or 40 times, or very occasionally I will listen to a song 100 times in a day. But it still counts towards the charts the same as if I'd listened to it 10 times.

So how do you explain the difference between the sales chart and the top 100 then?

Strangers isn't #1 because people aren't streaming it. That's why.

The two charts aren't the same. They're measuring different things. Of course they're going to be different.

Because streaming makes up the vast majority of the market. 93% of the singles market in the UK is made up from streaming, and that's including the 10 streams per day per person rule. Sales figures have been declining sharply for ages, with sales figures being below same week, previous year figures for over 230 weeks in a row, while streaming services have been seeing explosive growth over the past few years, with Spotify increasing from 50 million paying subscribers in March 2017 to 70 million in January 2018. Their figures also increased from 100 million monthly active users in June 2016 to 140 million in July 2017. That's why the streaming chart has more influence over the main chart than the sales chart does.

EDIT: Here's an article from the BBC from when streaming was first included in the charts. Under the "Coming of age" header it states "To avoid fans "gaming" the system, only 10 plays will be counted per user, per day.". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27924176

I'm definitely not kidding. They are the future

they are not future. vinyl sales growing..

Just a note: 22 by Taylor Swift spent a single week at #22 two weeks after it peaked at #9.

Thanks Thomas! :)
I expect there are a few more examples of this have had happened in chart history, but that's cool about '22' as Taylor Swift is my favourite artist.

There was also a song called you by ten sharp that spent 3 weeks at number 10, got to be the best one yet. Think it was around 1989

That's interesting, where the chart the position is part of the artist's name.
I don't think I've heard that song, but I'll check it out. :)

it was 1992 but spot on with the 3 weeks at ten : )

hey Piran! I do really like Say Something, although it took couple of listens to get into it. and the two other entries into the chart today are decent, but not great. Game Changer is quite forgettable tbh, and Walk It Talk It is kinda ruined by the chorus, which is very repetitive.
by the way, what do you think of Zedd's new track which debuted at #53 today? I absolutely love it and think the singer is amazing! I was very disappointed to see it fail to reach the top 40 today.

Hey Calum! I hope you've had a good weekend. :)
'Say Something' also took a couple of listens for me to get into too, but I also really like the song now, although I would still say I prefer 'Filthy' a little bit more right now.
I also agree with you about the other two new entries to the Top 40 & regarding 'The Middle', I'm definitely a massive fan of that song! I think it will hit the Top 40 eventually, but for now, it debuted at #5 on my latest personal chart! I think Maren Morris' vocals in that song are impressive for sure & I recommend you check out more of her music, as I know a bit about her from following the US charts.

I quite like seeing 'God's Plan' at #1 for another week. The song is growing on me quite a bit now! I just hope that it doesn't overstay its welcome at the top. I also like seeing 'I Know You' and 'Strangers' reaching new peaks in the Top 10, and 'These Days' climbing to just outside of the region. I love the climb for 'Fine Line' as well.

I'm not a fan of 'Walk It Talk It', but I like both of the other new debuts this week. 'Say Something' is the best of the 3 promo tracks from 'Man Of The Woods' by far for me; I'm really not a fan of 'Filthy', and 'Supplies' is just meh. 'Game Changer' is a track that takes a couple listens to get into, but it grew on me fast and I ended up really liking the song!

Of course I love seeing '17' at #17 this week! If it can do what Greg said on the show and be at #17 on its 17th week on the chart that would be amazing, but I don't think that it'll manage it. It'll probably get hit with the 300:1 ratio before then anyway.

I wouldn't be surprised to see 'The Greatest Showman' as the biggest album of the year, but there are still 11 months left so a lot could change. '÷' is still selling extraordinarily well for an album that's almost a year old and should have much better longevity than 'The Greatest Showman', and since Ed's going on a stadium tour around the UK later this year that should boost the sales of the album significantly, possibly enough for it to be the biggest album of the year for a second year running, just like '25' did in 2015 and 2016. However, '÷' doing it would be much more impressive since it was released in March, while '25' was released in November so it had its biggest sales months spread across 2 years.

There is also the chance of a new Adele album, like you said, which would inevitably become the biggest album of the year, and I think that Drake will probably drop a new album this year, which will stand a chance of being the biggest album of the year as well.

'God's Plan' is decent like I said a couple of weeks ago when it was released, but it's only deserving of about a month at #1, although I think it might be able to manage two.
I see 'Game Changer' more likely to grow on me than 'Walk It Talk It' right now, although 'Say Something' was the only one I enjoyed at first listen.
'÷' could very well be the biggest album of the year for a second consecutive year! Do you know the last album that did that, because I think '21' did the same on the US BB200 back in 2011-12.
Regarding Drake, both of his new singles are only for 'Scary Hours', which is just an EP, so I'm not entirely sure if he can do it yet. If he does, it'll be down to streaming, not the best selling album of the year.

If '÷' did make it as the biggest album of the year it'd be the 2nd consecutive time that an album has managed 2 years in a row at the top. Adele's '25' did it in 2015-2016, but since that was released in November of 2015 that's not massively surprising. '÷' doing it would be much more impressive since it was released in March!
If Drake did manage to get the biggest album of the year it would definitely be because of streaming, similar to how 'reputation' was the best selling album of 2017 in the US, but ended up at #3 in overall units, behind '' by Kendrick Lamar at #2 and '÷' at #1 because both of those albums had much better streaming figures than 'reputation'.
I think that Drake and Ed Sheeran himself are the only people that can even come close to Ed's record for the most first-week streams for an album in the UK at the moment. 79,000 streaming equivalent sales for '÷' will be very hard to beat when most #1 albums can't even get that amount in total in 1 week.

oh, is Maren Morris big in the US? I'll be sure to check her out then! :)