Don’t get too settled.  This won’t take long.  It’s a very quiet week on the singles chart, with a largely static top ten and only one significant new entry.

“Someone Like You” by Adele holds at number 1 for the second week.  Interestingly, according to the iTunes chart, the original studio recording is now outselling the Brit Awards version that catapulted her to the top in the first place.  It doesn’t look like any of this week’s new releases are posing much of a threat either, though it’s too early in the week to predict anything with confidence, given what happened on the previous two charts.

(more…)

Last week, Lady Gaga released a single on Friday afternoon, it entered at number 3 on the strength of a day and a half’s sales, and I confidently predicted that it would climb to the top in its first full week of release.  Well, so much for that idea.

As it turns out, what seems to have happened is that the hardcore Lady Gaga fans – of whom there are apparently quite a lot – ran out and bought the single in the first few days, but it’s taking longer to catch on with a wider audience.  This shouldn’t actually have come as a surprise, since she has a track record of releasing singles that took a while to catch on before climbing to the top.  Perhaps “Born This Way” will be the same.  (I wasn’t sold on it at first, but it’s certainly growing on me.)

Regardless, the upshot is that although she was number one in the Wednesday midweek chart, Lady Gaga didn’t sustain her sales over the course of a second week, and Jessie J’s “Price Tag” outsold her again.  At time of writing, “Born This Way” has dropped to 9 on the iTunes chart, while “Price Tag” continues to sell.

But neither of those singles is this week’s number one.  Unexpectedly, this is.

(more…)

It seems that Lady Gaga enjoys making life unnecessarily difficult for herself.  The chart week ends at midnight on Saturday, giving the compilers time to verify everything before the charts are announced on Sunday afternoon.  (Sunday sales count towards the next week.)  So when does Lady Gaga release her new single?  Friday afternoon at two o’clock.

“Born This Way” dutifully shot to the top of the iTunes chart, which as we all know is based on a complicated formula involving very recent sales and water divination.  Would it make number one on less than a day and a half’s sales?

Well, no, of course not.  It may be the biggest new release of the week, but not by such a margin as to overturn a five day head start.  Granted, “Candle in the Wine ’97” managed it, but that was a special case.  “Born This Way” enters at number 3, but chances are it’ll climb to number 1 on Sunday.  So we’ll come back to it then.

(more…)

Welcome to a new chart era.  I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that some of the major labels were introducing a new system for promoting singles.  Instead of hyping them for weeks before putting them on sale, they’re going to release new singles for download at the same time that they’re released to radio.  So, in effect, no pre-release publicity at all.  They call it “on air, on sale.”  And this is the first chart to feature singles released under the new system.

You’d have thought that would mean singles entering low and working their way up.  But, as it turns out, no.  The first major release with an “on air, on sale” schedule goes straight in at number one – which, of course, you could read as evidence that the record industry has been completely wasting its time with the pre-release hype on singles for years now.

(more…)

The midweek charts suggested a fairly quiet week.  As it turns out, there are ten new entries this week – but six of them are between 31 and 40, so the midweeks weren’t entirely wrong.

One of those new entries is at number one – “We R Who We R” by Ke$ha.  This is the lead single from “Cannibal”, a companion EP promoting a re-release of her album “Animal”.  Basically, it’s the old “special edition” schtick, except they’re going to sell the same album packaged alongside the new EP.  Since the new EP is available separately, it’s actually a fairer way of treating the people who bought the album the first time round.  Although as a rule, these days, they can just download the extra tracks if they’re that bothered.

(more…)

The post-Christmas lull is definitively over this week, as 2011’s first wave of major releases results in ten new entries.  Despite that, Bruno Mars clings on at the top for a second week with “Grenade”.  Since he was at number 2 in the midweeks, it’s fair to assume that it was a close run thing.

The unfortunate single which was number one on the midweeks only to fall short at the end of the week is “Rolling in the Deep”, the lead single from Adele‘s second album.  And it’s really very good.

(more…)

The singles chart is still somewhat becalmed in the post-Christmas lull, with a relative handful of new singles this week, most of them at the lower end.  This is all fairly standard, because UK record companies like to promote new singles for weeks before actually releasing them, and there’s no point trying to do that over Christmas.

But apparently things are about to change, because today Universal and Sony announced a change of strategy.   Starting in February, it seems, they’re going to “make singles available for sale on the same day that they’re released to radio stations”.  If it’s on the radio, you’ll be able to buy it.  This seems to be an anti-piracy initiative, the theory being that if you promote material which can’t be legally obtained then you’re creating an additional incentive for illegal downloading.  I suspect it’s a minor factor at best where piracy is concerned, but it’s certainly true that weeks of pre-promotion can easily backfire by creating a situation where interest peaks before the single is on sale.

(more…)

The charts are still in something of a post-festive lull, but things are starting to get back to normal as new material begins to creep into the lower end of the chart.  And with the X Factor sales tailing off, there’s a change at the top.  Having spent the last three weeks stuck at number two, 2011’s first number one single is…

…“What’s My Name” by Rihanna featuring Drake, finally completing a tortuously slow 18-10-8-4-2-2-2-1 climb to the top that began at the tail end of November.

(more…)

No reviews today – Diamond didn’t actually ship any of the X-books to my store last week, and for that matter they didn’t ship very much else either, so there’s pretty much nothing to write about.  It’ll all be in next week’s parcel, and I’ll cover it next weekend.

While I’m at it, I might as well cover the quietest chart of the year, covering sales in the dead period between Christmas and New Year.  You won’t be surprised to hear that the number one single is still “When We Collide” by Matt Cardle, hanging in for a third week.  That’s the longest run at the top since “Good Times” by Roll Deep in May, though of course they had some more intense competition to deal with.  We haven’t had a four-week number one since “The Fear” by Lily Allen in February 2009, but since Cardle is starting to drop down the iTunes chart, I wouldn’t bet on him matching her.

“When We Collide” was the second-biggest seller of 2010, which isn’t bad for three weeks of sales.  The actual top seller of 2010 was “Love The Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna.  That’s a surprise, because although it hung around the chart forever, it actually peaked at number 2.  Apparently it’s the first time the chart of the year hasn’t been topped by a number one single.  But the next eleven singles down were all number 1s, and the one after that was “Empire State of Mind” (whose sales were split between two versions), so it looks like a blip rather than a fundamental shift.

That aside, there is literally nothing going on.  The usual shuffling of places at the lower end of the chart, plus some back catalogue sales from year-in-review airplay, results in five re-entries, all between 35 and 40 – “Higher” by the Saturdays, “Pass Out” by Tinie Tempah, “Barbra Streisand” by Duck Sauce, “Please Don’t Let Me Go” by Olly Murs and “Magic” by B.o.B. featuring Rivers Cuomo – but that’s about it.

Next week… there’s at least something out.

Well, this won’t take long.

This may be the chart for the week leading up to Christmas, but traditionally the UK only cares what’s number one on Christmas Day – in other words, last week’s number one.  That was “When Worlds Collide” by Matt Cardle, the 2010 X Factor winner, and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, it’s still there this week.  It helps, of course, that virtually nobody else releases singles at this time of year, aside from a handful of people trying to sneak a hit in the dead period.

The only serious new release this week is “Lights On” by Katy B featuring Ms Dynamite, entering at number 4.

(more…)