The Fate of Ophelia's fourth stay at #1 in Australia gives Taylor Swift a new chart record this week.
Taylor Swift has now amassed 32 weeks at the top of the singles chart in Australia (from 13 #1 songs), thanks to the fourth consecutive stay at the top for The Fate of Ophelia, which moves her up the listing for 'Most Weeks at #1: Singles (1940 to 2025)' from 20th to now 18th, moving ahead of two other 32-week acts in Eminem (from 9 #1's) and Ed Sheeran (from 6 #1's), placing her as the sixth highest Female Solo Artist for scoring the most chart-topping singles (third placed in the ARIA-era 1983 to 2025), as ahead of her at the moment are both Madonna (40 weeks from 11 #1's) and Rihanna (41 weeks from 10 #1's), so they're her next targets to move up the listing.
Taylor's dual occupation occurs again for a fourth straight week, becoming her 19th overall duopoly in Australia, plus she also secures her spot as the act with the third highest tally of dual #1's locally, as ahead of her are ABBA (25 weeks) and The Beatles (31 weeks) both pre-ARIA, while finally this is the first double-up at #1 for a fourth stay since Sabrina's Taste and parent Album Short N' Sweet notched up four consecutive weeks from Sept. 23rd to Oct. 14th, 2024 (KPop Demon Hunters did it six times this year, but only three of them were consecutive weeks {Aug. 18th to Sept. 1st, 2025}).
For this decade Taylor Swift has now amassed 19 weeks at the top (JB is just ahead of her on 20 weeks), plus a fourth week at #1 for The Fate of Ophelia makes it Taylor's second longest running #1 song in Australia, her longest being Anti-Hero (6 weeks from Oct. 31st, 2022, this week three years ago) while her Ophelia track remains the top seller again in Ireland, Germany and Norway (each for a fourth week), along with The U.S.A., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Switzerland (all third week) while it drops from the top spot in England and Sweden (to #2, both three weeks at #1), Czech Republic, Denmark, Luxembourg and Singapore (all to #2, two weeks at the top in all locations), holds in New Zealand (#2), Iceland (#3), drops in The Netherlands (2 to #3), Hong Kong, Malaysia (4 to #5), Slovakia (5 to #8, HP-2), Spain (5 to #9), Taiwan (8 to #13, HP-5), Poland (9 to #13, HP-8), Italy (10 to #16, HP-6), Finland (9 to #17, HP-5), South Africa (8 to #18, HP-6) and Hungary (10 to #21, HP-5) with a small rise in France (7 to #6, HP-4).
Claiming a sixth overall week at its peak of #2 is the Olivia Dean track Man I Need, which could climb to the top in the next few weeks (or even next week) as she is appearing and performing on the November 19th at the ARIA Awards. The track retains the #1 spot in New Zealand (fifth week), dropping to #6 in England and Ireland (both #2 last week), jumps in Germany (18 to #12*), Austria (19 to #12), moves back up in The Netherlands (3 to #2), Belgium (6 to #4*), Luxembourg (12 to #8*), Norway (4 to #3*), Portugal (19 to #14*), South Africa (12 to #10, HP-9) and Switzerland (10 to #7, HP-5), holds in Denmark (#3) and Sweden (#4), and regains it's peaks in both The U.S.A. (17 to #8) and Canada (16 to #8), dipping slightly in Iceland (5 to #6). Plus Olivia has the highest placed NEW PEAK within the Top 50 this week as last week's jumping entry So Easy (to Fall in Love) is this week up three places to land at #7, with three more Top 50 entries for her coming up. (* = new peak)
The entire top six songs are on hold this week (out of 12 within the Top 50), so remaining at #3 for a third week is the HUNTR/X track Golden, which regains the top selling spot in Singapore (13th week), England, Sweden (9th overall week each), Luxembourg (4th week in total), holds the #1 slot again in Malaysia (13th week), Taiwan (12th week), Iceland (9th week), Hong Kong (8th week), Spain (2nd week), rebounds in Ireland (3 to #2, repeak), The U.S.A. (3 to #2), Italy (6 to #5*), Slovakia (8 to #7), drops in The Netherlands (1 to #4, after four weeks at the top), Denmark (6 to #7), Poland (8 to #9), Finland (13 to #20), Hungary (8 to #9), and holds steady in Germany, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland (all #2), New Zealand, Portugal (#3), Czech Republic (#5) and South Africa (#13; peak hold).
Taylor Swift has two more tracks within the Top 10 this week, with Opalite remaining at #4 and her ode Elizabeth Taylor dropping two places to #9. The two further non-movers here are Alex Warren at #5 with Ordinary and Disco Lines with Tinashe and No Broke Boys at #6, which is again the #1 Dance Single (16th overall week at the top of that chart). The last two Top 10 entries are both sombr tracks, with 12 to 12 rising one spot to #8, while his now 19-week Top 10 entry back to friends rebounds four places to land back at #10, plus it also rises to 3x▲Platinum in sales too (the only new sales certification within the Top 50 this week).
TOP 20: The second of three NEW PEAKS within the Top 50 this week sees RAYE continuing her climb and search with WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?, rising this week five spots to a new chart height of #13, while it also reaches new peaks in England (4 to #3), Ireland (5 to #3), Germany (10 to #6), New Zealand (13 to #11), The U.S.A. (70 to #67), holding steady in Canada (#40) and dipping one spot in The Netherlands (6 to #7).
The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack reclaims three Top 20 entries this week with Sopa Pop (12 to #11), Your Idol (20 to 15) both for Saja Boys, along with What it Sounds Like for HUNTR/X which climbs four spots to #20.
Olivia Dean could regain a Top 10 berth soon with her former #10 peaking track Nice to Each Other, which jumps four spots this week to land at #12, while Tate McRae remains on hold at #19 for a third straight week with her TIT FOR TAT track. Jumping back up into the Top 20 are Justin Bieber with his DAISIES (up eight to #17) and Undressed for sombr (up nine to #18).
Ten of the 12 Top 50 entries for Taylor Swift decline this week (the other two remain on hold at #1 and #4), as she has the only Top 10 departing track this week with Father Figure (HP-4, WI10-3) down six to #14, while her Sabrina Carpenter duet and LP title track The Life of a Showgirl falls five places to land at #16...
TOP 30: ...plus Taylor has five songs falling into this section too, four of them dissolve eight place each for Wi$h Li$t (13 to #21), Wood (15 to #23), Actually Romantic (17 to #25) and Ruin the Friendship (22 to #30), while falling seven places is CANCELLED! (21 to #28).
Rebounding here are How it's Done for HUNTR/X (up four to #22), Beautiful Things for Benson Boone (up three to #27) along with three five-place rises for Love Me Not by Ravyn Lenae (#1 Hip Hop/R&B Single), A Bar Song (Tipsy) for Shaboozey and Just Keep Watching by Tate McRae to #24, #26 and #29 respectively.
TOP 40: Both Metallica and Oasis started their Australian tours this past week, while we're still a month away from the Lady Gaga tour (starts Dec. 5th in Melbourne), but for now her Bruno Mars duet Die With a Smile takes an eight place jump back up to #37 this week.
Single place rises occur for Victory Lap by Fred Again.. with Skepta (to #31) and Tears for Sabrina Carpenter (to #34), while her Manchild crawls back up three spots to play right behind her Tears at #35, with two animalesque tracks/acts both rising four places each, Billie Eilish with BIRDS OF A FEATHER (to #33) and Gabriela for KATSEYE (to #40).
Taylor's two final entries within the fifty are the third and highest totalled declines this week, with Eldest Daughter falling nine places to #32 and Honey seeping down eleven spots to stick to the #39 slot. The two other declines here are both KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack entries in Free (down three to #36) and Takedown by HUNTR/X (dips two to #38).
TOP 50: The third and final NEW PEAK this week sees Olivia Dean zoom twenty-six places this week to take out the #41 slot with A Couple Minutes, while she also sees her Baby Steps track fall five places to #44 after peaking last week at #39. Rising back up two places is APT. for Rosé and Bruno Mars (to #45, second week at #1 this time in 2024), while the second biggest drop in the Top 50 this week goes to the Tame Impala #40 entry from last week with Dracula, which falls ten places this week to land at #50 (#1 Australian Artists Single).
I mentioned earlier that there are twelve non-movers within the Top 50 this week, with six of them in the Top 10, one in the Top 20 and the remaining five are here in the 41-50 section, three of which remain on hold for a third consecutive week; Sports Car for Tate McRae (at #43), Bad Dreams for tourist Teddy Swims (#46, he holds at #1 slot again for the On Replay Singles chart with Lose Control) and I Had Some Help for Post Malone and Morgan Wallen (#48), while the two other stable entries are When Did You Get Hot? by Sabrina Carpenter (#42) and That's So True by Gracie Arbams (#49).
The Life of a Showgirl for Taylor Swift continues its #1 occupation for a fourth straight week.
This week marks the second time in 2025 that a four consecutive week stay at #1 has occurred, the other between July 14th to August 4th for the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, which at nine weeks in total is the longest running Album at #1 in 2025, but there are eight more weeks of the year to go, so maybe Taylor can occupy some of them. The KPop album has also managed six weeks (of it's nine) of dual #1 spots during 2025, three of which were consecutive (Aug. 18th to Sept. 1st), while Taylor has now racked up a fourth straight week of duopolies (her 19th week overall, see above for higher achieving acts in this chart-feat), the first time since Sept-Oct 2024 for Sabrina Carpenter.
Taylor's overall tally of 'Weeks at #1: Albums 1965 to 2025' now increases to 72 in total (from 14 #1's) and for this decade the total is now 56 weeks (from 9 #1 placements), while the set regains the No.1 Vinyl Sales Chart spot (for a third week) and holds again in New Zealand and The Netherlands (each for a fourth week), The U.S.A. and Canada (both third week), while it loses the top spot in England (#3) and Ireland (#2) to this week's #7 entry, rebounding in Germany (5 to #2).
Rising a single place each are the aforementioned KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack (to #2, No.7 Vinyl debut this week), ARIA Awards act (Nov. 19th) Olivia Dean with The Art of Loving (to #3) and Sabrina Carpenter with Man's Best Friend (to #4, No.8 Vinyl), with one album seeing a one-place drop for the Alex Warren set You'll Be Alright, Kid (down to #9), while last week's highest entry for the Tame Impala fifth album Deadbeat falls eight places this week to land at #10 (No.4 Vinyl), with the set seeing entries this past week in The U.S.A. (#4) and Canada (#6), their third Top 10's in both locations.
Local country musician and former Oz Idol (2009) and X-Factor (2014) contestant James Johnston will turn 35 at the end of November, and as an early present he scores his second Top 10 entry with his second release called WHERE YOU'LL FIND ME at #5 (No.3 Vinyl), also taking out the #1 Country Album along with #1 Australian Country Album and #1 Australian Artists Album spots, which beats the peaks of his debut set RAISED LIKE THAT (HP-7, No.9 Vinyl and #2 Australian Country Album, October 9th, 2023).
Lily Allen releases her fifth studio and first in over seven years called West End Girl coming in at #6, it's also her fifth Top 10 entry in Australia after Alright, Still (LP#1, HP-7, Aug. 2006), It's Not Me, it's You (LP#2, HP-1, February and April 2009 peak), Sheezus (LP#3, HP-4, May 2014) and her last entry was No Shame (LP#4, HP-8, June 2018). Dealing with issues from her recent breakup with Stranger Things actor David Harbour, the current best performing song from the new set is Pussy Palace (UK #12, IRE #17), plus the new album also charts in England (#4), Ireland (#5, #1 on the Independent charts there), New Zealand (#6), Iceland (#20), Sweden (#37), Austria (#47), Norway (#52), Belgium (#57) and The Netherlands (#62) so far.
UK rapper Dave sees his third album The Boy Who Played the Harp enter at #7 this week (also claims the #1 Hip Hop/R&B Album locally), while the new set becomes his second entry and Top 10 in Australia after his previous release We're All Alone in This Together (LP#2, HP-5, August 2nd, 2021), while the set creates a new chart record in his homeland of England, making him the first UK rapper to score three consecutive #1 Albums, as the set lands at the top there this week (the fourth highest sales week of the year for them too) along with the #1 spot on their R&B Albums chart and the Irish Albums chart, plus entries in Scotland, The Netherlands (both #2), Belgium, Iceland (each #4), Sweden (#6), New Zealand, Norway (both #10), Austria (#15), Finland, Germany and Lithuania (all #22).
The fourth and final Top 10 debut and the second for a local artists sees Something for Kate lead singer Paul Dempsey debut at #8 with his second covers album Shotgun Karaoke Vol.II coming in at #8 (No.2 Vinyl), becoming his fourth solo and fifth post-SFK Top 20 entry, plus his fourth Top 10 placement. Paul last charted alongside Bernard Fanning as Fanning Dempsey National Park with the set The Deluge (HP-3, August 12th, 2024), while first Shotgun Karaoke set managed a #17 peak in November of 2013, with this new album containing covers of tracks by Cher, Don Helney, Tanita Tikaram, Patti Smith, R.E.M. and Max Q among it's ten tracks. Paul's two other album entries both scored the same peaks, Everything is True (LP#1, HP-5, September 2009) and Strange Loop (LP#3, HP-5, May 2016).
TOP 20: Two of the four Top 10 dropouts land within the Top 20 this week, with Sabrina Carpenter's Short N' Sweet (HP-1x13, WI10-60) dipping one spot to #11, while sombr with I Barely Know Her (HP-4x2, WI10-9) is down four places to #13, but the physical release of the album occurs this coming Friday (Nov. 7th), so it could be back within the Top 10 on the Nov. 17th chart.
Eight of the nine albums in this region all decline this week, with the only rising set being Royel Otis with hickey, which lifts five places to #17 thanks to a No.10 Vinyl slot this week, plus the duo start their UK tour on Monday at the Tower of London. Half of the Top 20 drops a single place, with the four others being Tate McRae's So Close to What, Gracie Abrams' The Secret of Us (after four weeks at #17), BRAT for Charli XCX and Play for Feb. '26 tourist Ed Sheeran to #12, #18, #19 and #20 respectively. Down two places each are Morgan Wallen's I'm the Problem (to #14) and HIT ME HARD & SOFT for Billie Eilish (to #15).
TOP 30: Bruce Springsteen's 1982 sixth studio album Nebraska was the precursor to his massive Born in the U.S.A. (1984-85 #1 set) release, and it sees an expansion from the original ten tracks set to now a five CD edition which contains the remastered edition, outtakes, live version plus the longtime bootleg tracks for Electric Nebraska along with a Blu-Ray of the live album. The album was originally his fourth to chart, starting it's chart-life on October 25th, 1982 (43 years ago), peaking at #8 in it's fourth week (WI10-1, WI100-15), with the set returning on April 8th, 1985 for a six week stay (during his Born in the U.S.A. tour here) scoring a #42 peak during that run. Coming in at #21 locally (No.9 Vinyl), it also charts overseas in Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands (all #3), Scotland, Italy and Austria (each #4), England (#14), Finland (#16), New Zealand (#28), Japan (#31) and Ireland (#35).
Bon Jovi return at #25 with their sixteenth album repackaged as Forever (Legendary Edition), which contains the original 14 tracks on the album all now as duets featuring such acts as James Bay, Robbie Williams, Jelly Roll, Jason Isbell, Ryan Tedder, Avril Lavigne and Bruce Springsteen among the many song, including a new track called Red, White & Jersey. The album originally debuted and peaked at #4 on June 17th, 2024 and it returns for a fourth overall week within the Top 100, as well as overseas returns in Scotland (#1), England (#2), Ireland (#9), Germany (#12), and The Netherlands (#42).
Three albums remain stable in this chart region for Think Later by Tate McRae (#23), the possible final-week entrant 1989 (TsV) for Taylor Swift (#24) and SWAG + II for Justin Bieber (#29), while Taylor's other entry here The Tortured Poets Department is only down a single place to #22, with further drops seen by Ariana Grande's eternal sunshine (down two to #27) and recent tourist Teddy Swims' I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 2) (drops four to #30).
The only two climbing albums here are for December tourist Lady Gaga's MAYHEM (up two to #26) and Sleep Token with Even in Arcadia, which jumps up five places to land at #28...
TOP 40: ...with five albums seeing climbs here, plus two of them are NEW PEAKS, with ROLE MODEL again rising with Kansas Anymore, up three to #32 and recently announced May 2026 tourist Cameron Whitcomb benefits from a physical release of his five week old entry The Hard Way (originally it debuted and peaked at #46 on Oct. 6th), which this week rebound fourteen places to take out the #38 spot.
Jelly Roll also sees a double-digit climb this week too, as his Beautifully Broken set leaps ten places to land at #31 (HP-19), while two albums rise back up two-places each; KARMA for Stray Kids and F-1 Trillion by Post Malone to #36 and #37 respectively.
Ocean Alley have the only stable entry within the Top 40 as their Love Balloon hovers in the #34 spot again, while drops are seen by Doja Cat's Vie (down six to #33), GNX for Kendrick Lamar (down two to #39, his CHROMOKOPIA album saw an expanded edition issued on Friday) and Jessie Murph with Sex Hysteria (down four to #40), while she has a new track just issued called I'm Not There for You (which is not on the album).
TOP 50: The final three non-movers (of nine within the Top 50) all lie within the Top 50 this week, sitting back-to-back are The First Time for The Kid LAROI, American Heart by Benson Boone and Charm by Clairo again at #47, #48 and #49 respectively.
Two sets rise here for Laufey and A Matter of Time (#1 Jazz/Blues Album) up one to #41 and the PartyNextDoor and Drake set $ome $exy $ongs 4 U (up two to #42). Conan Gray dips one spot to #44 with his Wishbone set, while down six to #46 is Addison for Addison Rae. Ruel sees his #6 entry from last week Kicking My Feet (HP-6, WI10-1) fall thirty-nine places this week to land at #45, while the fourth and final Top 10 dropout is The Last Dinner Party second album From the Pyre (HP-7, WI10-1) which leaves the Top 50 this week.
FURTHER NEW ENTRIES: * #5 (LP#2) - WHERE YOU'LL FIND ME - James Johnston (Warner Australia)
* #6 (LP#5) - West End Girl - Lily Allen (BMG UK)
* #7 (LP#3) - The Boy Who Played the Harp - Dave (Neighbourhood)
* #16 (LP#4) - Son of Spergy - Daniel Caesar (Hollace Inc./Republic) is the fourth album and now third entry for the Canadian artist who saw his previous two releases chart here for Case Study 01 (LP#2, HP-26, July 2019) and Never Enough (LP#3, HP-43, April 17th, 2023), with this new set landing higher in New Zealand (#8, his first Top 10 there) and lower down in The Netherlands (#25), England (#44), Belgium (#47), Scotland (#72) and Germany (#74) so far.
* #35 (LP#9) - It's Not That Deep - Demi Lovato (Island) is the ninth studio album and eighth entry in Australia and her first release since her remix album REVAMPED (Sept. 2023), with her last chart entry here being Holy Fvck (LP#8, HP-47, August 29th, 2022) and her last Top 10 placement was Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over (LP#7, HP-8, April 12th, 2021). This new set enters higher in Belgium (#20), matches its entry position in New Zealand (#35) along with Scotland (#51) and The Netherlands (#76).
* #43 (LP#7) - Creature in the Black Night - Dayseeker (Spinefarm) is the seventh release and first chart entry for the O.C., California post-hardcore act who formed in 2012. The four-piece band are due to play two shows in Australia on December 3rd (Melbourne) and 9th (Brisbane), so this album could either hang around or rebound closer to their shows here.
* #50 (GH#4) - Quintessential Black Sorrows - The Black Sorrows (ABC Music) is the Aussie bands fourth collection of hits and second to chart, as their first The Chosen Ones - Greatest Hits peaked at #4 at the end of January 1994 scoring ten weeks within the Top 10 and a Platinum sales certification, having begun it's chart-life on November 14th, 1993 it took only four weeks to rise into the Top 10. The new 21 track collection also saw a physical release on 2CD and double vinyl and is their first entry since their 19th studio album Saint Georges Road (HP-14, Sept. 20th, 2021), with two releases issued in-between then and now for them being Live from The Shangri La (late June 2025) and their 20th studio album The Way We Do Business (came out in October 2024).
New Accreditations/Certifications: Singles: back to friends - sombr ▲3 Teeth - 5 Seconds of Summer ▲5 Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood ▲10 (was 1xP)
No Album this week
extra singles: Diet Pepsi - Addison Rae ▲ Bloodline - Alex Warren feat. Jelly Roll ▲
*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week is from the 24th to the 30th of October 2025.
Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen) debuts on the On Replay singles chart. Sweet Disposition has an unusually large fall (#14 to #46) which I first thought might be to do with the/a remix having been removed from a playlist but no, the original has suddenly fallen a lot on the Spotify chart this week; no idea why.
Teeth (5 Seconds Of Summer) debuts on the Australian version. That's not a song I'd have ever expected to pop up! A Halloween gift for us? Its current Spotify plays (worldwide) are actually a bit higher than Youngblood (and both are more than double that of their #3 song, She Looks So Perfect). I feel like it's a good sign that a long-gone 2019 hit is still in ARIA's tracking system (for this chart). Let It Happen (Tame Impala) also debuts. Georgia (Vance Joy) re-enters at #32; coincidentally a different song called Georgia was covered on Like A Version today.
I wonder if ARIA will give a pass to the record companies this year and give an exception to their current 2 year rule and allow all the old Christmas choons to chart on the main chart Since we're probably about a month out from Mariah appearing once more it got me curious.
You'll probably get some old stuff on the EOY chart since the new rule only began in September. Majority of festive songs that have previously charted are older than 2 years and if those including Mariah are denied then the only thing i can think of that's charted in the last two years is Sabrina Carpenter's 'Fruitcake' EP,unless that's old as well. Last edited:
I was just thinking about this same issue earlier this week with the Xmas songs, unless they do a separate 'Seasonal Chart' for the six weeks of the Xmas season.
* A Nonsense Xmas - Sabrina Carpenter * Run Rudolph Run - Mark Ambor * Holiday Road - Kesha * Santa Baby - Laufey * Driving Home for Xmas - Dasha * Under the Tree - Ed Sheeran * Merry Xmas, Please Don't Call - The Bleachers
Would be a shame if we don't get a proper End of Year chart. Would make it pretty messy on both sides of the coin when tallies just stop counting arbitrarily (the wrong dates they seem to be using for "NIGHTS LIKE THIS" and "back to friends" making it two kinds of arbitrary). It's one thing I think the OCC do right in their messy application of restrictions. The year end chart being the one thing I can trust.
I think this will be the last proper EOY chart as Jinx calls it. If you (generally speaking) are counting the sales of the 50 or however many weeks it is then you have to include everything that was selling before the new rules kicked in. Safe to say this will be the last EOY chart as we are used to Last edited:
I can't see ARIA do a separate seasonal chart given all the Christmas will appear in the Replay chart.
In regards to the Year End chart, ARIA will probably strictly follow the weekly charts like they've always done. I doubt we'll get Year End charts for the Replay charts (except the albums one as it's just the former catalogue chart that was created in 2009) as they only started in September.
I would suspect that if there is a shift in the methodology, the 2025 EOY will be compromised all the same, so "Pink Pony Club", "Lose Control" etc are arbitrarily stuck on whatever they managed to reach. By the same arbitrary reasoning, I expect "Heat Waves" has the EOD chart locked up for sure. I thought "Beautiful Things" or "Dreams" could catch up to it by 2029, but all locked now, and nothing's gonna move 1.5 million (or however much it is) units in just 2 years.
I did a google search not expecting to find anything and turns out the Christmas songs will NOT be exempt from the new rules. Going to be a very different Christmas chart this year. Sabrina #1 most likely. We'll see
I was @392, but only because bullion mentioned it above. We don't know for certain whether the charts will be different but i'll be glad of a no mariah at #1 . Thanks for the correction!
If ARIA don't allow Christmas songs and albums to re-enter, it's going to look ridiculous considering we know the chart those weeks - particularly the week of December 25 - is/are going to be far from accurate when the most streamed and sold track would likely be Mariah, Wham! and so on. If it's a within-two-year chart, some songs in the top 10 would in reality that week be some songs that would be below the top 50 if Christmas songs were included. It would also make Australia's charts basically the only main charts in the world to not have a majority of Christmas material in the chart that week. NZ also have an "older songs excluded" rule for their charts, do they not? Yet they allow Christmas material in... Last edited:
I also feel like there's a mis-conceived perception that December charts would be more interesting if not for the Christmas music, but I think that in general, most music fans just aren't looking out for new music in that time and you're likely just seeing established hits climbing back up through Spotify Wrapped and associated discourse. Occasional exceptions of course, but I don't know if there's a great value in uprooting everything so "The Days - NOTION Remix" can hit the top 50 a couple of weeks sooner.
Would be a bit unfair to Wham! also as they've been making strides towards hitting #1 in recent years, maybe 2035 is their year?!
Having a flood of Christmas songs enter the charts IS what looks ridiculous and's only occurred in the past 7 years. Hopefully the fad is over! Once again, if you want an accurate representation of what's being streamed the most, the Spotify charts are for you. And, why exactly should ARIA do what all the other broken charts in the world are doing?
I mean, the Spotify charts have had the wrong official #1 at least 15/52 times in the past year I think? When BLACKPINK were #1 officially a few years back they were only #11 on Spotify for the week. I'm not really interested in a simulacra of the charts when I can get the real thing.
I just find it hard to escape the perception that it's all based on pettiness. Like the #1 motivating factor whenever anyone brings up anything about taking something out of the charts, it feels like saying 'This being on the chart is not helpful for me, and therefore I want it gone'. I've seen it with Glee, album tracks, Christmas music, and also just any old music. I wish I didn't have to see it this way but either everyone's leaving out their best argument, or they're just what they sound like.
Aren't the charts in general based on pettiness? As long as people's favourite track is charting everything else be damned. Seen that a number of times here. If ARIA wanted to do it's own Christmas chart I'd have no problem with that and i don't dislike AIWFCIY, i actually still like the song but change is good. It keeps thing fresh and the charts have been stagnant for a number of years. Every year you know it's going to be #1, let it be #1 on the on replay charts.
The AMR/ARIA charts, for over 55 years, did a good job of measuring the popularity of contemporary single releases, which is what they were created to do. There was no Glee/Voice/X Factor downloads, album tracks or older single releases (Christmas music or otherwise). None of that stuff belongs in the charts. It's as simple as that.
The rot began when downloads allowed the biggest hits to hang around a lot longer than the half-year they would have traditionally. Then streaming turned it into the hot mess it's been - album bombs, annual Christmas music bombs, older music re-entering and taking up chart places alongside recent hits and never leaving, Australian and many traditionally-charting artists and genres struggling to chart. Most of this caused by Spotify playlists.
I will be fair and say that even though the charts became less of a passion for me around 2003 i would have had no problem if songs had a cut off period for total weeks on the chart when digital became massive. The chart limit becomes larger and larger as you get into the end of the 2000's and before you reach the 2010's. I'll agree that the glee stuff should have been limited but i'd also apply that to the X-Factor/The Voice/Idol stuff as well. UK got it right with their 3 songs from an album rule.
Apologies in advance, this post got way longer than I thought it would be!
I guess the way I see it, there's always been an audience for music. Within that audience, there's a sub-division of listeners whose idea of what that should be like is shaped by their perception of the top 40 (or equivalent). It shapes the music they discover, and they actively contribute to it themselves, with an influx of activity that makes those funny parabolas we all love.
There's a vagrant quality to that though. The real hitmakers are the people either behind the scenes or in the public that are getting those hits to that stage, so as much as we'd like to believe it, those observers have never really been shaping the chart, even if maybe they have the biggest influence as potentially the final say in what goes to #1.
The way I see what's going on now, we're just entering a new paradigm in how these audience groups divide. The simplest way I can put it, is asking the question of 'What if the charts are shaped by people who don't care about the charts?'. Maybe it sounds sacrilege, but it's interesting in its own way. Charts being a conglomeration between all these different audiences that maybe don't see eye to eye. I think it's very interesting actually. Something pure and unfiltered that feels more real to me than a conveyor belt that just discards thing because they surpass an arbitrary limit on how long we think something can chart for.
I also think there's a common misconception nowadays. The idea that Spotify playlists are to blame for whatever particular grievance people have with the charts. I think the effect is there, but in the opposite direction. Spotify playlists unilaterally point people towards things they haven't heard before, or songs that the labels want to be hits. It's something I want to write about on my blog when I get to a certain entry (some may know what I'm referring to here) because I think this creates part of the puzzling dichotomy. Everyone plugging in Shaboozey or Teddy Swims again might actually be the realest ones out there, meanwhile Tame Impala's probably going to climb up the chart next week because Spotify decided it's a new Halloween classic in the making (the song didn't seem to move the needle on iTunes).
I guess we all have a funny way of deciding what counts as organic but it just seems to be taken up by what works to our advantage. I don't know what it was like to follow the charts in the 1960s (I was just looking at Fred Bronson's Number 1 Hits book and he mentions being hooked on charts before then), but I'm imagining when you get to the historic run of The Beatles when they were consuming the whole top 5, replacing themselves at #1 over and over again. Anyone who isn't a fan of The Beatles would likely be denigrating it all the same way, just a meaningless teenage fad that's getting in the way of the likes of Connie Francis or Ricky Nelson. That sentiment must have been around then, Sean Connery puts down a pretty harsh assessment of The Beatles in the movie "Goldfinger".
It sounds silly now, but that's what it always is. I don't think anyone would argue so strongly for it if it wasn't a case of convenience to them. The reason I say that it's petty is because look at what it's brought us. 9 weeks now and the only top 50 hits we've had otherwise are a song each from JISOO & Olivia Dean. I'm sure there are more below the top 50, but unless ARIA start publishing that information for everyone to see it, I don't see a good argument for it being valuable exposure. The big difference is just the omission of the certain handful of perennials, and I guess I differ from most in that I don't find forced eviction very satisfying. If I'm sick of a song, it'll be a great thrill if it finally falls below the chart because it means the public has (relatively speaking) moved on. I know they actually haven't but that's a different story. Doing it like this just feels like living in denial, refusing to accept the state of play and looking for any excuse to pretend a fictitious account is the real thing.
Yesterday I was trying to convince someone that a Double Platinum single that never reached the Billboard Hot 100 should be considered a hit and they were very steadfast against me because they hadn't heard the song. This wasn't a song that missed the chart because a handful of unwelcome squatters took up too much space, but one that likely never got close at any point and just accumulated it slowly.
I love looking at the chart. Behind my 10 weekly posts every Friday afternoon is the gleeful smile of someone who loves seeing the new record being stated, and digging into all the micro & macro things to be interpreted from it. I just don't see any productive value in caving into the id's irrational desire for a quick fix. What we've got is a fascinating document on the developing tastes and actions of the general public, warts & all.
I don't see why not? Clearly the notoriety was there, in some cases righting the course when "Dreams" or "Mr. Brightside" belatedly became top 5 & top 20 hits respectively (still underselling it but we take what we can get, and the longevity is a good reference point too). It'd be pointlessly fraudulent to pretend that "Tusk" or "Somebody Told Me" were more popular singles just because the only record we had of it was their first window into having a go. Just because things once worked in a certain way doesn't mean we have to lean hard into maintaining that and not move with the times.
Jinxie: You miss the fundamental point of the charts being created for contemporary single releases. They were never meant to track the popularity of every song that's ever been released. That's what the Spotify charts are for. I've said this before.
I get the point of the thing about The Beatles, however that was only really one year (1964 and 1963 to a lesser extent) You weren't getting songs hanging around for 5 or more years. Even when music from The Beatles was re-issued in the 70's and again in the 80's it's run on the charts was minimal. I get what SG is saying and you know SG that you and i are largely on the same page, however i will say that progress must be made way for. If billboard or OCC are adopting practices there's no pressure for Australia to follow. If they do, as i suggested earlier you put in parameters. That way you have the stuff that is selling being showcased and new music is given a chance to flourish as well.
There is a kind of hypocrisy i suppose. Back in the 90's no one would have blinked twice about Mariah's 'Music Box' being in the top 100 for 86 weeks Or 'In Utero' despite only getting to #2 hanging around the top 100 for 91 weeks. It's a kind of precursor to what we're seeing now. I can't find anything on a similar level with singles but i do agree with SG in that spotify or itunes can be used to measure how well something is testing but it shouldn't be a measuring stick for sales
Where does it say that the charts were created for contemporary single releases? I don't think that would be relevant anyway because we're talking about the prospect of these contemporary releases having to fight for space alongside classics, something that I doubt was a going concern all that time ago. I hope this isn't something that was okay when physical singles were being purchased but now digital & streaming transactions are trivial because of some sort of elitist principle ('You used to have to go out and buy a single!' is not a terrific argument).
It's not just the oldies that seem to be the problem though, it's just anything that gets annoying. I don't see why entries from Glee should be considered fraudulent, just a quirk of a system that favours isolated purchases to benefit for that brief window. An exploit maybe, but no different to the same situation that allows King Gizz to rack up an endless number of top 10 albums while being completely anonymous to the general public.
I'm trying to find a discussion panel ARIA hosted a few years ago where they were talking to some label execs about the issues facing Australian music at the time (still relevant) because I've been paraphrasing it for a while and need a refresher. Anyone able to help?
It's always been known that the charts were created to market, promote and service contemporary single releases. That was done successfully for over 55 years and could have continued to during the downloads and streaming eras if the rules on singles eligibility were updated in a timely manner, but they weren't and so we get the stale, stagnant-unless-bombed, homogeneous charts that we have today.
Who said that and when? It feels like a loaded statement that only sounds agreeable if the inverse implications aren't laid out. I could just as easily say that most people I talk to agree that the chart should represent whatever's most popular in this moment, whether it's KPop Demon Hunters or Oasis tracks having their time in the sun again, or anything like that.
I'm not trying to do anything of the sort. I was asking a question because it sounded like you were citing something I wasn't familiar with and I'll happily be educated if I'm uninformed (I wasn't exactly alive when the tablets were carved out). But if it's just an opinion then that's not really giving any weight against my initial quandary that it all just feels like petty grievances.
Clearly we have different opinions on what denotes a farcical chart, but I'm not going to go down any route that's akin to 'this doesn't advance my agenda of what the charts should be, therefore it doesn't belong on the chart'. Maybe that isn't what it's about but I'm having trouble being convinced otherwise. As The Rolling Stones say, you can't always get what you want.
"I wasn't exactly alive when the tablets were carved out" - yeah, good one. I wasn't alive back then either but I've read up on music chart history. Wanting a singles chart to be a singles chart is hardly an agenda. Currently, nobody is getting what they want - there's those who don't like the new rules and those who think the new rules don't go far enough.
Oh I didn't mean that as a personal dig, apologies if that's how it came across. Just putting some flavour into writing (I write nearly 1,000 words a day on my blog, I spice it up to prevent my own tedium, lol), I can do the maths. Music history is an interest of mine and it's part of why I feel so strongly about it.
Look for instance at the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s, it's an endless flowing of new singles in the top 5, at #1 etc, nearly every single week. Then in the early 1990s Billboard changes their tracking to SoundScan and suddenly things are very different. Longer stints at #1, and genres like hip-hop & country music are belatedly (although probably still not to the most accurate respect) given flowers. What happened? They simply got more accurate reporting of data, and it was all less controlled by made up figures that pushed artists to the top just because the labels or record stores wanted it. It's similar to what happens with some genre airplay charts nowadays, a somewhat dodgy cycle that catches the big hits still, but drags up some bit players to coast in that same reverence.
I look at these old charts and find it difficult to trust what's actually popular. It's the only record we've got, but some of these records I just can't fathom belong, and the general public over time has not kept in touch either. Anyone for whom that '80s era served the interest of likely hated the change, one that was more accurate, but was both more boring, and brought in large swathes of audiences that were happily being ignored. It's the same thing I feel with current charts. I look at the US & UK charts and can just sniff out the artifice. Rules regarding recurrency that aren't uniformly applied at different levels of the charts. It's something that can take me out of it, like seeing an anachronism in a TV show, or a statistic that isn't quite right.
The funny thing is that there is no sating the need. The Billboard charts recently adjusted their recurrency rules again because they supposedly didn't do enough (I think they were frustrated that Taylor Swift couldn't get Teddy Swims off the chart, but anyway), and just the other day I saw someone saying that the 3 track rule in the UK doesn't do enough, because the impossible to address issue of the charts collecting artists who are on monstrously different magnitudes is creating new waves of apparent tedium. We should be okay though. A hard limit on 105 weeks means it's not possible to be ever-present. I love longevity records but I guess I'll have to find new records to admire. Kind of like how it looks like no AFL player will ever kick more goals than Tony Lockett, but other stats like Games Played or Disposals are open to be admired. We kind of use what we've got to find what's interesting in a modern context.
I agree that the chart is stale, but I don’t think there’s really a fix for it at this point. The new rules haven’t helped, with very few top fifty hits making it that wouldn’t have anyway; instead it’s just older stuff clinging on for longer. That’s So True, I Had Some Help and APT. for example are all holding at the bottom of the top 50 now, but might have been gone if the rule hadn’t changed. And even if the rule was tightened further to allow songs to only chart for a year or whatever, the ‘next songs up’ aren’t fresh ones either, it’ll mostly be songs that would have dropped out sooner hanging around for longer.
As far as Christmas music goes, I personally hope it’s not allowed this year, unless that instead means an influx of completely different Christmas songs that get in by virtue of not having charted in the past ten years, and instead of Mariah/Wham/Brenda there’s some random artist’s version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town right up at the top of the chart because it’s the 50th most played song on Christmas Day. Then I’d rather the usual suspects be allowed in.
Yes Hijinx, I was just editing it all to remove it and say:
"The charts aren't what I remember!" Yes, and they never will be again, because people who say this will never be satisfied and/or don't like newer music anyway.
I originally wrote something longer here but I cannot for the life of me be bothered to argue on this website with people who will never be satisfied no matter what the charts do because they've shown no matter what changes are introduced it's still not good enough. Fin.
No one in this thread far as i can tell has said at any point 'The Charts aren't what i remember" Not Bluezombie, Not SG Not hijinx and certainly not me. I am oblivious to new music as i only know names and not the songs but if i heard something and liked it i'd be open minded. I just don't have the time to seek out everything and am not a fan of taking chances on something i don't know enough about. Savagegrant just compiled his year end chart for 2024 so any suggestion he doesn't like new music is completely false.
Jesse, why you're acting like I named you or aimed anything specifically at you is lost on me. Also, please don't do the "I speak for everyone here and you're against us" thing that you just did. It alienates and "others" anyone who's not a regular poster here. Neither you nor anybody else had to say those exact words. It was clearly a paraphrase of a sentiment that multiple people here, you being only one, have expressed, as multiple users specified years and points in time where the charts lost either their interest or stopped being something that they had some sort of relative confidence in. Secondly, I specified "people...will never be satisfied" first as that is more important and the main take-away I have from here. ARIA introduces pretty (so far) strict new chart guidelines, people still have complaints. Last edited:
I didn't see what SS said but I can imagine it was the same kind of vicious crap he/she said three years ago that caused me to leave the site a second time.
I find what's happened to the ARIA charts (and other world charts) very sad and I feel sorry for the younger generations who either assume that's what the charts are supposed to be like, or they know what the pre-2008 charts were like. The charts moved faster, including the Top 10, singles had their time in the sun and didn't overstay their welcome, there were no floods of album tracks or older songs (including Christmas music) and there was much more genre variety. I bet if you took any chart from the mid '90s there would be 2 or 3 times as many genres represented as any recent chart that, of course, is not being bombed to buggery.
I know that ARIA will never be able to, or care enough to, keep every non-single out of the singles chart but I'd be satisfied if ARIA made two more changes. Firstly, the two-year cutoff is too generous - I'd reduce it to one year. Secondly, something obviously still needs to be done about the album bombs. Whether it's a UK-style three entries per artist or something else, I'm not sure.
BZ: That's a good point you make about the possibility of seeing a flood of second-rate Xmas songs into the charts this Christmas. I had a look at the ARIA Top 500 from last Christmas and the following songs debuted in the 101-500 section...
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Bing Crosby
Frosty the Snowman
Ella Fitzgerald
Driving Home for Christmas
Dasha
Joy to the World
Nat King Cole
Cozy Little Christmas
Katy Perry
Sleigh Ride
Ella Fitzgerald
Someday at Christmas
Stevie Wonder
Under the Tree
Ed Sheeran
Merry Christmas, Please Don't Call
Bleachers
Man with the Bag
Jessie J
Even if all 10 made the Top 100 under the new rules, it's better than having 62 Xmas songs chart like last year!
Interesting savage, that’s not as many as I’d have expected although I assume there’s probably others that weren’t debuts.
Jesse: old stuff can still chart, there were various conditions upon their entry though, but I’m not sure if it’s clear yet if all or only one of those needed to be met. One was that if it hadn’t charted within the last ten years, allowing the ones on savage’s list, but denying Mariah and the like. Another was something about doing enough to be top 30, so I guess if meeting that condition is enough, Mariah and the others could still appear.
Apologies for getting off topic here, but it can't go unaddressed. Savagegrant, interesting you talk about "vicious crap" when you were the one who called Innocent Eyes a "pathetic troll" for merely expressing an opinion several weeks ago. You are the classic example of a crybully. You insult and make personal attacks on others, then when someone says anything back to you about your incessant complaining about ARIA's charts, which you'll still NEVER be satisfied with even if they did what you want because it's no longer "pre-2008", you weaponise how they did something to you years ago. I recall arguing with you years ago, but it takes two people to argue. Don't act like the victim of something you did right back to me.
@Jesse, Katy Perry's song was released in 2018 (well, as an Amazon exclusive and then released widely in 2019, but either way it's "old").
@BZ, this is what the Code of Practice says:
Re-Entry Conditions (h) To reflect major “viral moments” or activities which may prompt renewed interest in a release, Singles can be returned to the ARIA Singles Chart under the following conditions: (i) the Single has been absent from the Top 100 Singles Chart for at least 10 years; (ii) if the Record Supplier submits a Chart Survey Request for the Single to be considered for re-entry into the Singles Chart, then the Single will only return to the Singles Chart if it qualifies for a Top 30 (or better) chart position; and (iii) the Single can only remain on the Singles Chart for a maximum of 10 weeks.
I think all the conditions need to be met. That would mean the only way a more-than-2-years-old Christmas song could chart is if something that hasn't charted in the last 10 years (whether because of not doing well enough or because of not being tracked) does enough to be top 30... which feels possible to me given how low the bar for top 30 would be, but I'd guess it's probably unlikely that a label would be on-the-ball enough to notice that a song was heading towards this very-specific loophole and submit a request for it.
Although, arguably, the way the 2nd condition is written suggests that if a request is not submitted, then the song can chart no matter how low it is (And for that matter, what does "top 30 (or better)" mean? A secret #0?)
Also, it just occurred to me that December 25 is a Thursday this year and thus all the Christmas songs may be significantly diminished, assuming that Thursday data still isn't properly counted.
Savage, Ss112's previous post was deleted because I deemed it the appropriate action. It's not necessary to speculate the contents of it and make assumptions. I'm deleting this post as well, and making that same statement to anyone who's trying to imagine the worst version of what it could be.
I'm going to re-iterate what I said a few weeks ago. We need to stop bringing back past incidents as ammunition to win an argument. Whatever the incident is, everyone's already going to have been acting under their own rationalised perspective in the time, and so no one's going to look like the hero, especially if it's just continually brought back up as a gotcha. I've been pushed off the site before, myself, and while I still think the things said to me were a bit extreme given the circumstances, it allowed me to reflect on my own shortcomings and why someone must have thought I deserved it. Moreover though, I reached out to these people privately, explained my feelings, and reached a good understanding. It's not even about the likely suspects, probably the person I've had the most conversations with is someone I'd consider one of my closest friends on the website. We all just come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives on what's crossing the line.
I understand mental health is very important, and I'm not trying to diminish it. We're all human beings here, and adults for that matter. Yes, we're all very passionate about the charts and how they work (and it's not a competition). That's great. We won't all agree with how we think they should work, that's less great, but it's not a bad thing inherently. It creates discussion. But we can all do better than this. Consider it a post deleted from both of you and no outright 'winner'. I will outright delete any future posts that attack the character of other members, as well as any vague mudslinging that's being disrespectful but skirting around saying an actual direct insult. Please don't make me have to do this. Last edited:
@392 I think December 25th falling on a Thursday is not especially consequential for Christmas music, since December 24th pulls similar numbers. Of course I don't fully understand the system they have in place. I used to think in 2018 that they did something strange with them, tracks from Kanye West's "ye" seemed oddly low on the first week even accounting for the mid-week release. It's not something I've noticed ever since, so perhaps they do some close approximation to Wednesday's data. I'd even speculate that this might be the best day of the week for it to fall onto, since December 19th's numbers are better than December 26th.
I think Apple & iTunes gets it through, but I can't imagine Spotify does, considering that they don't even have the numbers through on their end by the time the ARIA Chart goes live. Admittedly I base this perspective from the UK Charts since they get talked about more (and that chart comes out ~9-12 hours later). The Aotearoa charts also for a while got pushed back to Saturdays by their own admission that they needed more time to get accurate data. They changed them back to Fridays a number of years ago.
Maybe they get the data after all (I'd be further surprised given their chart is published even earlier than ours), but I suspect they just decided that a rough estimate of 10% of the data doesn't tinker with the results too much, which it doesn't really for the most part I imagine.
I still think for instance though, there was a week in 2021 when "Cold Heart" got the #1 over Mariah and it felt like that was the result of a rough estimate at the worst time of the year for one of those.
In regards to Spotify, I think that artists can follow the number of streams of their releases in real time but I may be wrong. Thought that ARIA perhaps had the same system.
But yep, a few years ago the Thursday data was definately not counted. Mariah dropped to No. 4 in early 2021 when it she should've been No. 1 if thursday's Spotify streams had been included.
I would be curious to see if it's changed but it's doubtful. The charts would be more reliable if they came out on saturday but ARIA really want to release their charts before the UK it seems...
So the UK Charts have various midweeks that are pretty publicly available to see. One of the more notable ones is every Sunday afternoon/evening, Radio 1 have a 'First Look'. That chart is always skewed because it's missing Saturday Spotify data. Every other midweek chart they have is the same, with Spotify leaning entries gradually climbing up through the week because the proportion of missing data becomes less important. Many will get thrown off by the album chart in particular because big streaming albums just seem to vault up on the official chart, because that's the only one that has 7 days 'worth' of Spotify data, but I don't think it's all locked in at all.
Assuming that the data Spotify provide to ARIA follows Australian timezones (and I've never had a way to be sure of this), the week ends 10-11 hours earlier than that for Spotify's own charts, so it's possible that the data could be ready in time (ARIA's deadline, as stated in the Code of Practice, is Friday 10:30am AEST), but I assume that if the OCC can't get the data in time (or rather, are unwilling or unable to pay whatever premium Spotify would demand for expedited submission, I imagine) then it's unlikely that ARIA would.
"The prior decision to publish the Charts on Saturdays was dictated by the availability of data arriving from online platforms based in other time zones. Led by Director of Data & Analysis Paul Kennedy, the Charts and Data team has since been able to reduce delays and make system adjustments which now allow a faster rollout."
That implies to me that they do get the data, and just compile the charts faster... but their "chart rules" PDF says their deadline is Friday 11am, so it feels doubtful unless their "reducing delays" was in the form of making Spotify reduce theirs (I suppose they could have an advantage in that with NZ being a much smaller country, there's less data to process).
"The return to a traditional Friday unveiling means the weekend can get off to the right start for the artists, labels and music fans waiting to hear where their latest releases have landed before heading home or setting up for Friday night shows" is really flimsy reasoning, in my opinion. "It will also mean that the Official New Zealand Music Charts can go back to being the first national charts in the world to be published each week" is more understandable, I suppose, in the sense of getting a bit of social media attention from stans who wouldn't care about a small country's charts otherwise.
For ARIA, I feel like there's a sort of backwards irony that when it comes to their tracking system, it's like they're still living in ~2006, but when it comes to their wanted speed of data submission, they're well out into the future. (It goes without saying that I would prefer the opposite.)
Also with regards to December 24 pulling similar numbers to December 25, it might be worth noting that since most of the 25th's morning counts towards the 24th for Spotify purposes, that may not be true in Australian time (unless you're already accounting for that).
I didn't want to bring in the time zones issue last night because it was getting to be too much, but I agree, it's an odd lack of clarity (that I don't think we'll get, because it's far more in the weeds than ARIA/Spotify would deem necessary to explain to the public). I remember back when we used to get extraneous LW data on the ARIA Charts, you'd get some appearances from entries that shouldn't have been able to log any data by the cut off, and so maybe it's messier than it should be.
When all of this happened, I might have figured that the Aotearoa charts were often actually missing multiple days of data, since they'd have a tighter deadline than us or the UK (appropriately, I went to bed pretty close to the deadline last night, and Spotify's charts and in-app numbers both weren't updated yet). I think of that week Avalanche City got to #1 in 2015 with what must have been so little streaming data and I can imagine a frustration if smaller scale versions of this kept happening.
And then perhaps Spotify did just get more consistent, they saw what ARIA & the OCC were doing, and decided whatever small amount of data they might be missing wasn't a problem anymore. I think for the most part, an estimation won't really affect the results too much (look how quickly elections get called, statisticians don't need 90% of the data to do it). It does always enter the back of my mind though that if I listen to something on Thursday, it's probably not getting counted on the chart.
Do you remember any examples of those LW positions? Were they low enough that the songs could've been sitting on 0 units at the bottom of the survey, if they'd been submitted further in advance than usual?
I wish I did but I'll admit I never noted them down because it felt like arcane info we weren't supposed to get or acknowledge. I want to say that there was enough variation in the numbers that it suggested different tiers, but perhaps your hypothesis is most likely.
In saying that, maybe one of my old BuzzJack posts say something like 'the LW column suggests that...', but it doesn't sound like something I'd have focused on.
Another hypothesis would be if Spotify actually follow every user's local time, so streams from Western Australia for the first 2-3 hours after new releases come out count towards the previous week... I highly doubt it (I'd find it more likely that Spotify submit all their data in UTC and ARIA just accept it), but if true it would give you a very outsized impact on those low "debuts"
50 latest reviews
Halloween releases
I wasn't alive back then either but I've read up on music chart history. Wanting a singles chart to be a singles chart is hardly an agenda. Currently, nobody is getting what they want - there's those who don't like the new rules and those who think the new rules don't go far enough.