Official Singles Chart on 22/2/2019

Am I the only one that thinks the streaming weight on the charts it's too high and completely miscalculated?

How can "Leave a Light On" by Tom Walker be #06 on single sales chart (up from 30) and not even inside the TOP 40 on the Official combined chart?

Plus Ariana Grande so called records on this chart are a joke when the old official charts were calculated based only on the sales and therefore should only be compared to the sales chart. Both The Beatles, Madonna and all the other artists that she is "doing better than" and "breaking records" were also pretty big on radio (streams are the new spins) but did sold enough to break those records. Not the case with Ariana Grande that isn't even inside the Sales Chart TOP 5 region. They did all that on the Single Sales Chart that was the official chart back then. This new format that includes streams is new (there was no streams back then) and it can't be compared.

On the sales chart Ariana Grande doesn't even have a hit inside the TOP 5: "7 Rings" is now #09 and her new single is sitting outside the TOP 10 at #12. But as we can see both this song are #01 and #02 on the combined chart. The weight that sales and streams have on the chart should be based on the money those 2 give the artists. If that was the case each sales would be equivalent to at least 15.000 streams (ant that's already low) and not 150 like it is now (this number is really low - a person that buys a song listen to it much more than that in the long run). People still spend much more money buying music than streaming music. If that was the case (the chart weight was correctly adjusted) Ariana Grande would have a very different chart historic record as her success is based on lots of streams and less sales (she would have been #01 just the same with her first 2 singles from this album but no more than one or two weeks each).

Its still amazing Ariana Grande achieved yet she did not break any Beatles or Madonna record as they did those records on the sale chart where she broke no record at all. "Break Up..." was not even a SALES Top 5 Hit as it peaked only at #06. This means that in the sales chart she didn't even equaled the Madonna record for 2 songs on the TOP spots as when "7 Rings" was it's lone week at #01 "Thank U" was already out of the sales chart TOP 20. Madonna did have in 1985 "Into The Groove" and "Holiday" at #01 and #02 on the single sales chart that was the official chart back then.

The official singles charts today show only popularity (if anything) and not sales or the songs that make money as it used to do. To check those songs one have to check the Single Sales Chart. Though sales count for 90% the money artists make (from singles) are streams that count for 90% of the chart weight. How mixed up and weird that is? Something is clearly wrong and smelly here.

"Giant" is the sales #01 for a third consecutive week but it's peak its only #04 (this week). Lucky that it's already an official Top 5 Hit. Yet this song already made more money in UK than both Ariana Grande latest singles that peaked #01 on the official chart (combined) and "7 Rings" was out just a week later.

Just check the sales chart and see how much more variety and more number one songs are there. The sales chart is much more dynamic than this one (all because the streams weight are miscalculated): https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/

I only have one question: was this worldwide miscalculation of streaming on purpose (as more people listen to lists and record companies and music managers do pay for their artists songs to be included on those lists) so that the charts could be controlled? (just like they were in the past in US with some payola scandals as in US radio airplay almost always counted toward the official HOT 100 chart). France does have a slight different method to incorporate streaming and there we can see that Ariana Grande only have a single inside the TOP 10. "7 Rings" it's at #09 on the official French Chart.

Also it's super weird that the same streams are counted twice for the charts: 1500 streams are both 10 songs solds equivalent on the single chart and 1 album sold equivalent on the album charts. The miracle of multiplication. Yet 1 album and 10 singles real sales gives the artist, producers and records company 200 times more money than those streaming equivalent chart points - to make the same money would be needed around 300.000 streams and for the charts are only needed 1500 streams to have the same value. These maths are not right and anyone who reads this can see it. Also a song that is sold is in average played (this may be subjective but its a statistic) at least 2.000 times in years to come so why count 150 listening as 1 single sold? Was that the average number of the times the song that was sold was listening on first week was bought? What about the following weeks? Who bought the song will continue listening to it. It's a better math than the economic one (where are needed at least 15.000 to make the same money as 1 song sold) but it was needed 2.000 streams to make 1 song sold to be justified and yet we are at 150. There is no possible fair justification for 150 listening being equivalent to 1 song sold.

We all know that chart number ones generate news and generate hype and that's exactly what's happening now. Record companies need that for artists and singles that aren't selling, not for the other ones that are selling out like crazy every week.

Be free to comment and give me your input please. What piece of information am I missing? Can anyone make any sense of this? 'Cause I can't understand why they suddenly they decided that the official chart it's not about the songs that people are willing to spend money to listen to and became more alike an airplay chart. Worst: they try to compare the new "play chart" (no matter the money the song makes) with the old sales chart (ranks of songs that made more money this week).

where's Dido?

Why so few new entries? I ,remember back in the day when the charts were full of new deliveries

Slow week. Only two new entries in the top 40.

"This week is therefore another record-breaking one for her, as she becomes the first artist in UK chart history to replace herself at #1 in two consecutive weeks."

Not really. Prior to 2014 streaming didn't exist so no artist could achieve the same feat. First chart act to replace herself in the *streaming era*. Streaming sales outweigh digital/physical sales.

Another example; Ed Sheeran had 16 songs the top 20 in 2017. Chart history record breaker or just a flawed streaming system? (hint - it's the latter!) Prior to streaming that record breaking feat was impossible.

Where is Thank you next, single?
And, what about Marina´s Handmade Heaven?

UK Top 40 Singles Chart, 22 February 2019
https://youtu.be/6IstG29tuuw

My thoughts & observations on the UK charts as always…

- Ariana Grande replaces herself at #1 on the singles chart again, as ‘7 Rings’ returns to the top for a fourth week in total.

- This week is therefore another record-breaking one for her, as she becomes the first artist in UK chart history to replace herself at #1 in two consecutive weeks.

- ‘Dancing With A Stranger’ by Sam Smith & Normani has now spent an entire month at #1 on the national airplay chart.

- Ariana Grande dethrones herself on the YouTube chart as ‘Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored’ debuts at #1 with 4.24 million views this week. Last week, she became the first female artist in chart history to replace herself at #1 on the singles chart.

- CARDI B & BRUNO MARS – PLEASE ME (#12)
I never know what to expect from Cardi B these days, since she’s either putting out singles that I either love or hate immediately (although ‘I Like It’ was always just in the middle for me). As for this, look, it was going to be a massive ask for this to be better than ‘Finesse’ & while it definitely isn’t, I can still groove to this a bit at least. There’s still a sufficient amount of chemistry going on between Cardi & Bruno, particularly because they both delivery similar levels of energy here, with the latter artist continuing to capture the R&B swag in the hook & the former having more fun in her flows than usual. On the other hand, it feels like there’s been way too much engineering going on in the 90s-style instrumentation, which makes this a lot less $exy than it could’ve been, also not really helped by the fact that the risqué & playful lyrics don’t make a lot of sense nor do some of the punchlines. Still, both artists are good enough behind the microphone to sell this, so I’m thinking a solid 6/10.

- D-BLOCK EUROPE – KITCHEN KINGS (#16)
On the other hand, this is a track that I wasn’t really looking forward to, given that ‘nASSty’ wasn’t exactly a promising debut & what I was hearing about this song didn’t show a lot of potential going forward either. This doesn’t show any improvement, because while it’s more disposable than embarrassing, it’s also arguably just as offensive. The lavish lyrics aren’t so much of an issue here, but the way they’re treating women like pieces of me is just infuriating & there is absolutely no excuse for that! Also, it’s ironical that Young Adz is so quick to claim he isn’t racist, when he used the N-word several times in his last hit. There are no notably good trap features here, most of them are basic anyway, but what did annoy me was the squeaking towards the end of the song. In fact, the more I’m talking about this, the more I’m thinking that this is worse than ‘nASSty’, because at least that had somewhat of a melody in its hook. Let’s just give this a 2/10 & move the heck on!

- ZEDD FT KATY PERRY – 365 (#37)
So despite this dropping back on Valentine’s Day, it only barely scraped the Top 40 by having just about enough downloads, but it’s doing so little elsewhere that I don’t see it lasting. Unfortunately, after hearing this song a few times, it’s not hard to see why. Firstly, on the production side of things, I don’t mind the more subtle & laid-back rhythm that we’re not used to from Zedd, but did we really need to hear the clock-ticking melody from him for the thousandth time? It’s becoming really old now! That aside, it’s just cringy to listen to Katy Perry try to be sultry in her vocal delivery, because for as much as she’s trying, she just can’t sound convincing at all despite her slightly quirky delivery in the hook. Outside of that though, for a song about how she wants to be around someone all the time, she sounds a lot more boring than I would’ve expected. I really liked so much of Katy Perry’s earlier music, but between this & most of her last album, I don’t see things making an improvement anytime soon & given how much hype this got on social media, this is just disappointing. Light 5/10!

- On the albums chart, ‘Thank U, Next’ by Ariana Grande is #1 for a second consecutive week, with 37.2 million streams between all the tracks on it.

- The rest of the Top 5 is: ‘The Greatest Showman [Soundtrack]’ by the film’s cast (stationary at #2), ‘A Star Is Born [Soundtrack]’ by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (6-3), ‘Bohemian Rhapsody [Soundtrack]’ by Queen (stationary at #4) & ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ by George Ezra (7-5).

- Looking ahead to next week, these songs could be entering the Top 40 for the first time: ‘Walk Me Home’ by P!NK, ‘Juice’ by Lizzo, ‘Don’t Watch Me Cry’ by Jorja Smith, ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ by The 1975, ‘Desire’ by Sub Focus & Dimension, ‘Bad Idea’ by Ariana Grande, ‘Murder On My Mind’ by YNW Melly & maybe even more.

- Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you all have a good weekend. :)

- My latest Crown Note chart: http://crownnote.com/charts/piran-delves/pirans-top-40-116