I think it's unfair for streaming, counting towards the UK Singles Chart. I think it's unfair as a lot of songs are losing their original chart place due to this. Here are some examples:

Artist || Song || Singles Chart Position || Singles Sales Chart Position

Melissa Steel featuring Popcaan || Kisses For Breakfast || {10} || {6}
Bakermat || One Day (Vandaag) || {15} || {10}
Neon Jungle || Louder || {14} || {11}
Clean Bandit featuring Stylo G || Come Over || {50} || {41}
Charli XCX || Boom Clap || {6} || {4}
Bars & Melody || Hopeful || {5} || {4}
Nicole Scherzinger || Your Love || {6} || {3}

I think it's fair. The singles charts are changing, as is the way that people listen to music and that needs to be incorporated into the way the charts are compiled. The chart is a rank of the popularity of a song, and if a song is being listened to in large amounts it deserves to be reflected in the chart. Don't forget, a song has to be listened to multiple times for every one time a song is purchased.

It's not unfair. Every single song is given the same treatment. If a song is suffering because it's not being streamed as much, well maybe the artist should've made a better song that people want to stream more.

Lol you think our chart is unfair? Look at the US chart were radio play and even YT views are counted

Without streaming, songs which have been in the top 40 for ages would be on their way out.

Record companies in the UK are useless. They should make songs available to stream when the songs go to radio. Then that allows the songs to build up popularity (I think Get Lucky and Waves are the only songs that went to #1 on Spotify in their second week).

So let the streaming increase over a couple of weeks as airplay also increases. Then release the song to iTunes about 3 weeks after going to radio/streaming sites.

To be honest, I listen to more music on YouTube than iTunes and Spotify. Why? Because the songs are actually available to play on YouTube.

New songs which lost their original placing due to streaming.

Kiesza - Giant In My Heart {4} {3}
Rizzle Kicks - Tell Her {9} {14}
Iggy Azalea featuring Rita Ora - Black Widow {32} {26}
Sam Smith - I'm Not The Only One {40} {32}
Clean Bandit featuring Stylo G - Come Over {45} {38}

More songs losing out due to streaming:

Taylor Swift : "Shake It Off" {4} {3}
Lethal Bizzle featuring JME & Tempa T : "RariWorkOut" {11} {8}
Ariana Grande featuring Zedd : "Break Free" {20} {19}
Katy Perry : "This Is How We Do" {38} {32}
George Ezra : "Blame It On Me" {43} {35}
5 Seconds Of Summer : "Amnesia" {45} {39}

What are the eligibility rules for streaming songs to chart? Do they have to be backed up by an actual release?

I'm just wondering cos I was a little shocked that Nicki Minaj's Anaconda didn't chart this week. In the US it charted at no.2 based on streaming alone. Are the rules different in the US?

It looks like they become eligible as soon as they're present on streaming services.

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-...rst-time-3105/

I don't know what to think of this. 100 streams seems like too many to equate to one sale, but set it any lower and you'll have every micro-artist begging their fans to leave tracks on repeat overnight.

Like the recent Union J. single which obviously had their desperate teenage fans repeat-streaming 24/7 to get it to #9 last week, only for the song to plummet to #74 this week.

Don't even think that was the case. The single mostly got to #9 from the pre-order sales on iTunes. It's just once all the die hard fans got their downloads, that doesn't leave many other people left who are willing to purchase the track because they just happen to like the song rather than the group. Don't think it got anywhere near top 50 on Spotify's streaming chart - probably not even close to top 100 tbh.

If anything, the lack of streaming is the exact reason why Union J dropped so heavily in the chart.

I'm surprised that no one repeatedly streams the same song to keep it in the charts. I reckon the race for this years Xmas #1 could be interesting, now streaming is included

Isn't there a rule that only so many streams from each IP (?) count?

Yup, 10 streams per track per day, though this is per Spotify etc account (not IP number) . That makes it a maximum of 70 streams of a track in any one chart week per account. For chart purposes 100 streams is equivalent to one download sale. So unless someone has an account with more than one streaming service they will not be able to contribute more than 0.7 of a "sale" of any one track in one chart week. This should, in theory at least, make it very difficult for die-hard fans to be able to "game" or manipulate the chart by streaming a track multiple times on a daily basis.

Got to say that streaming has made the charts pretty much unlistenable as all the hits which were already big and had been there for ages - Sam Smith's 'Stay with Me', all three of Ed Sheeran's tracks, Mr Probz etc become even bigger whilst a lot of songs which could have made the top 40 now miss out or if they do make it disappear too quickly.

I know that digital sales are falling but it seems that because of this they have fundamentally altered the charts. I see streaming. especially on free services, as the equivalent of airplay rather than sales because people don't put that financial investment in the track which means that new acts will find it more difficult to break through.

I suppose the golden days of over 10 new entries a week from several new acts ,including a lot of alternative stuff, is well and truly over. But does anyone care about the charts (apart from obsessives) nowadays anyway?

I doubt very much that streaming is having THAT much of an effect. Kids are just downloading them.

Streaming is good and bad in different ways for instance, "Happy" by Pharrell Williams would be higher in the chart without streaming