Originally Posted by konebyvax:
“There's a lot of sniffiness in this thread (by people claiming they aren't interested in the chart but still take the time to not only open a thread about the charts but also to actually write a response. Bizarre). Look, he's not exactly my cup of tea (I mean, at all) but this IS an amazing feat. And why would it matter if only 14 year old girls buy it? Don't they count or summat? A record buyer is a record buyer surely? Especially in these awful times for the music industry (unless you happen to be adele, of course).”
It matters because as others have said, they stream it rather than buy it, making the charts no longer comparable with previous years. Those 14 year old kids or whoever, probably have streaming subscriptions paid by their parents - and by endlessly repeat-streaming the same stuff day after day and week after week, they push
their kind of music (teenager and even younger music) far higher up the chart than would have occurred if they bought the single then endlessly played it on repeat, as they used to do back in the day.
Their 1000+ endless repeats now counts as 10+ single sales, versus 1 sale previously, so it's no wonder the charts now bias in favour of teenagers' habits instead of those who buy, or play, a much wider repertoire... i.e. older music lovers. There should be a limit of
one sale equivalent, however many times a track is streamed by one subscriber.
Originally Posted by Tyyleer:
“The only factual information that is relevant to this thread is that Justin Bieber HAS made history by being the first and ONLY artist to ever achieve a number 1, 2 and 3 position in the UK chart. It's irrelevant if you think that One Direction or any other artist could also accomplish this, because they haven't.”
But it's no longer a sales chart as historically it always was... so comparisons can no longer be made except with the period starting in July 2014 when streaming was added. The previous sales chart records will now stand for ever, so your statement should now read:
"Justin Bieber HAS made history by being the first and ONLY artist to ever achieve a number 1, 2 and 3 position
in the UK sales + streaming chart introduced in July 2014."
He is, in fact, nos. 1, 2 and 12 in the official sales-only chart, which demonstrates the distortion caused by streaming and
that is what should be compared with singles charts prior to July 2014. Still an excellent result but no record.