by philipchevron Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:39 pm
DzM wrote:Nope. I think that's the question I was asking. Mostly I'm just surprised that the "Christmas No. 1" is determined by the prior week's chart, not by the chart on which Christmas falls.
Crazy, that music business!
Well. it's a retail thing, so perhaps outdatedly overlinked to fossilized retail models, all the more so in an era in which FoNY, as a textbook example, re-charts almost entirely on Downloads, having bothered with physical formats on only two occasions this century (2005/20012). Record stores have only one more day (Christmas Eve) to sell product. As the industry patrols the chart, it figures, not unreasonably, it is entitled to call the chart whichever day it wishes, but as the prime purpose of the chart is to generate hype and excitement and competition (the Xmas Number One), it has to be of considerably less significant value in the following week, when record stores, such as they are, are shut and the appetite for Christmas songs is likely to be as robust as that for cold turkey wings.
Ironically, given the extraordinary amount of TV coverage FoNY got on Saturday alone, not least through the countdown to #1 on
The Nation's Favourite.......Christmas Song, next week could just be the first year in which it has not instantly sunk like a stone the first week after Xmas, though I suppose it would take an unprecedented level of Christmas Eve sales for that to significantly alter the governing curve. Indeed, it's even possible that FoNY's leap to #12 having reversed downwards in the previous week (from #15 to #18) may already be explained in full by sales from today, Sunday.
[quote="DzM"]Nope. I think that's the question I was asking. Mostly I'm just surprised that the "Christmas No. 1" is determined by the prior week's chart, not by the chart on which Christmas falls.
Crazy, that music business![/quote]
Well. it's a retail thing, so perhaps outdatedly overlinked to fossilized retail models, all the more so in an era in which FoNY, as a textbook example, re-charts almost entirely on Downloads, having bothered with physical formats on only two occasions this century (2005/20012). Record stores have only one more day (Christmas Eve) to sell product. As the industry patrols the chart, it figures, not unreasonably, it is entitled to call the chart whichever day it wishes, but as the prime purpose of the chart is to generate hype and excitement and competition (the Xmas Number One), it has to be of considerably less significant value in the following week, when record stores, such as they are, are shut and the appetite for Christmas songs is likely to be as robust as that for cold turkey wings.
Ironically, given the extraordinary amount of TV coverage FoNY got on Saturday alone, not least through the countdown to #1 on [i]The Nation's Favourite.......Christmas Song[/i], next week could just be the first year in which it has not instantly sunk like a stone the first week after Xmas, though I suppose it would take an unprecedented level of Christmas Eve sales for that to significantly alter the governing curve. Indeed, it's even possible that FoNY's leap to #12 having reversed downwards in the previous week (from #15 to #18) may already be explained in full by sales from today, Sunday.
