Is no one writing new music anymore? I know that so many new songs have to credit writers of completely different songs because the music is so similar so clearly we’re running out of music.
10 of the top 20 albums this week are Greatest Hits albums. I’ve listened to 7 of the remaining 10 albums and 2 are Ed Sheeran and I can’t be doing with that nonsense.
Number 20 on the top 100 is the Arctic Monkeys’ album ‘AM’ which was originally released in 2013 and has spent 466 weeks in the top 100. It debuted at number 1 and then stayed in the top 100 for 169 weeks until 8th December 2016. Then it dropped out of the top 100 before returning on 22nd December 2016 and just staying there. In this second run in the chart, it peaked at number 11.
Who is buying this? Who is listening to this? How do album statistics work in the charts? How many songs in an album have to be streamed to contribute to rankings for the album?
I mean ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’ (WYOCMWYH) and ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ (DIWK) are both on this album and people are playing those daily right?
Don’t worry though, I’ve found an explanation!
‘Official Charts will take the 12 most-streamed tracks from each album. The top two tracks will be down-weighted in line with the average of the next 10. These streams will then be added together and divided by 1,000. This ‘stream factor’ will then be added to the physical/digital sales of the album’
So, WYOCMWYH and DIWK are clearly going to be the top two tracks. But out of the remaining 10 tracks on the album, there were 4 more singles, all very well received. I’m guessing that with half your album being singles…and all good singles, the difference between the top two and the average of the remaining 10 isn’t going to be so big meaning your 2013 album is at number 20 in 2022.
Honestly, with 6 huge singles, this could have also been a Greatest Hits album.
Rubik Cube of Mim 