There’s a school of thought that says the singles chart shouldn’t get overrun with Christmas singles every year, because it exists to promote new music. There’s a degree of truth to this. The chart exists because the music industry funds it. And the music industry funds it because they see it as a useful promotional tool. And until streaming came along, nobody expected the charts to tell us that people kept playing records they already owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But. The charts only work as a promotional tool because they’re not perceived<\/em> as a promotional tool – or at least, because they’re perceived as some objective measure of popularity. In a streaming era, where sales are dwindling into irrelevance, you’re talking about measuring the music that people listen to. And in December, they listen to Christmas records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God, do they listen to Christmas records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n