James' Blog - Charts News

Official Charts online has a brand new look - and new research to determine once and for all just what everyone thinks of them. Newsflash - it is really good.

The full list of celebratory activities planned for the 70th anniversary of the British charts in November 2022. And believe me, there are plenty.

The decision of Sainsbury's to pull out of music retailing raises some gloomy questions over the future of the compilation album. Given that supermarkets are where most people go to buy them these days. Is it time they stopped needing their own chart at all?

69 years. That's how much chart history we have to play with. That history gives us almost endless statistics, longevity records, productivity records and "greatest ever" records. But with so much data to play with and with the records covering such a long period of the history of popular culture there is also room for debate on certain areas. Such as when a record might not be a record. As is the case with Taylor Swift this week.

As a follow-up to the previous piece, some notes on the record sales for albums and when they were achieved, along with some sobering facts about the size of the seasonal market over the past few years.

The historic size of the overall singles market. And just what caused record highs and lows in the past. The answers may surprise you.

Change is upon us, as the legendary creator of the whole idea of chart commentary steps down. And they are very big shoes to fill.

Another watershed moment in the transformation of the UK charts. After years of the question being asked, video streams will finally count towards the singles chart. Here's the ins and outs of how it will all work.

Ed Sheeran did manage to break things, to the extent that a whole new set of rules are to be put in place to try to settle things down a little. Introducing (amongst other things) the Accelerated Chart Ratio.

A polemic on the crisis engulfing the album market, and how the rise of the new streaming superstars may prove that the format isn't as dead as we feared.

A now slightly-obsolete polemic on why there's nothing to fear from Ed Sheeran's extraordinary singles chart domination of March 2017.

James is quoted in an extended GQ article about the charts and wants you all to know about it.