May 1st 15 II: New release rhythm of the charts

There ain't boring weeks in chart business isn't it. As there is no action due to numbers and ranks I can tell you a big change launched by chart compiling institute media control. With sales week starting at 24th of April it releases the actual charts on Friday after end of sales already. So within 24 hours one gets the result of what was bought and downloaded most. In the UK the charts appear that way long time. German officials always wanted to be something special. And completely misinterpreted technical possibilities. Alternative download charts like iTunes or even amazons list became more and more popular due to their in-time-availability. This development was even supported by media controls strict publishing policies. Long time they sued every platform that published the charts.

Now the official chart company realizes its weak position and tries to strike back. With an even more complicated innovation. Since start of April 2015 the company launches the Mega Charts which summarize all music adoption whether it is by sales or streaming (audio AND video) or airplay. Number 1 is the track with most uses–as we know it from all other sales charts over the whole world. The official sales charts which are so far the most anticipated still reflects the amount of money the tracks generated by sales. So a sold CD single counts three to four times of a digital sale.
I guess it is only a question of time and that German speciality will disappear in meaninglessness.


That was the story of the week. What about music?
As we see again a complete static Top3 one might think there is no story to tell. Well–number 1 track See You Again by Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth adds a fourth week on its account. It is the first rap containing track from the US since summer 2013 that manages such a feat. Back than it was T.I. who accompanied Robin Thicke & Pharrell on Blurred Lines and had exactly a four weeks run at number 1.
Searching for a US rapper as leading act on a number 1 song that held firm for at least four weeks we have to go back as far as to May 2005. Exactly 10 years ago Akon had his first international success. The single in question was Lonely and occupied the top for eight long weeks. No question that track was a romantic ballade too.

In the UK See You Again is on the way down. Dethroned by a track that had its number 1 ride here on February. Scanning the news for Germany there are two singles that could rocket into the top10 in one week time as Sarah Connor and Lena offered new material. Will one of these releases fly to number 1?


At number 19 the new single Stole The Show by KYGO enters the Top20 with making the third Norwegian production appearing simultaneously there. By also watching Aurora entering the list at number 78 with Running With The Wolves there are five songs from Norway inside the list–did we ever had such a situation in Germany?

Highest new entry comes in at number 22. It is the Farin Urlaub Racingteam with iDISCO. It is the 15th solo chart entry for the member of Die Ärzte. By all of them missing the Top10 the very successful musician is one of the chart acts failing most time to get inside the Hot10. The one with most hits and never getting over number 11 is Westernhagen who already launched 23 chart entries and peaking at number 12.

Youtube stars Taddl, Ardy and Marley formed the trio DAT ADAM which sees its debut album Chrome flying to number 5 inside the album list. As this release actually is an EP containing only six tracks it is even more impressive having four of them inside the singles list too as there are 700 Main Str. at 38, Forrest at 82, UFO at 91 and DFA at 92.