I looked at the German and British singles and albums charts.

Singles:
40 old songs - Germany
32 old songs - UK

Albums:
68 old albums - UK
60 old albums - Germans

I am too lazy to check other music industries... but I assume it is the same everywhere.

I know we have this discussion every December with Christmas songs... but should old music not be allowed to chart?

9 minutes ago, stevyy said:

I am too lazy to check other music industries... but I assume it is the same everywhere.

Now this is what I call top-tier research

I know this is an unpopular opinion and I can smell the 'streaming should represent whats popular' NO. Streaming should represent what CURRENT MUSIC is popular. Everything else should be relegated to a catalog chart. Especially on Spotify.

The charts are basically the worst way to measure music's popularity

Nowadays streaming allows this as you don't have limitations by what radio/tv is spinning or by CDs no longer being printed/sold.

It's a matter of facts. So there should be a general chart and one with restrictions to music released over a certain amount of times (24 months?)

If they're the most actively consumed songs i don't see the reason why they shouldn't chart.

Imagine a top10 hit but it's actually only the 15th biggest song and only top10 bc other, bigger but older songs aren't allowed to chart

Defeats the purpose of a chart completely imo

7 minutes ago, Solaria said:

I know this is an unpopular opinion and I can smell the 'streaming should represent whats popular' NO. Streaming should represent what CURRENT MUSIC is popular. Everything else should be relegated to a catalog chart. Especially on Spotify.

How would streaming represent what's "current" (relatively new) if people are streaming older songs? Are you saying streaming should represent something other than what people are streaming?

The charts have always been broken and heavily manipulated. Only a very niche subsection of society cares for them. The rest just listen to music casually without too much care about what charted where.

I would support a currant chart and a catalogue chart .

Honestly think it makes sense and is fair. Would say you are regulated to the catalogue chart once you drop out of the chart once.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by DevilsRollTheDice

Bots & suspicious rises and falls in streams (ie the Kalshi betting stuff) is a much more pressing issue to me. If it's organic then who cares how old the song or album is? No shade but a lot of this sentiment seems like it's coming from stans salty that their faves' new music isn't doing as well as catalogue stuff

Edited July 25Jul 25 by Billionaire

What bugs me the most for a long time now is how the UK Albums Charts are mostly Best Of.

TOP ALBUMS :

 

01 NE 01 The Rolling Stones ~ Foreign Tongues

02 RE 26 My Chemical Romance ~ Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

03 03 05 Olivia Rodrigo ~ You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love

04 04 267 Michael Jackson ~ The Essential Michael Jackson

05 NE 01 December 10 ~ On Your Side

06 NE 01 Bring Me The Horizon ~ Count Your Blessings: Repented

07 05 42 Olivia Dean ~ The Art of Loving

08 02 02 Sienna Spiro ~ Visitor

09 01 02 Madonna ~ Confessions II

10 08 400 Fleetwood Mac ~ 50 Years: Don't Stop

11 07 12 Noah Kahan ~ The Great Divide

12 15 671 Oasis ~ Time Flies: 1994-2009

13 10 10 Katy Perry ~ The Ones That Got the Plays

14 11 284 The Weeknd ~ The Highlights

15 13 94 Ed Sheeran ~ +-=÷× (Tour Collection)

16 09 278 Michael Jackson ~ Thriller

17 06 19 Harry Styles ~ Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.

18 23 758 Oasis ~ (What's the Story) Morning Glory

19 17 118 Linkin Park ~ Papercuts

20 14 09 Drake ~ Iceman

21 25 70 My Chemical Romance ~ The Black Parade

22 18 228 Pitbull ~ Greatest Hits

23 22 453 Elton John ~ Diamonds

24 19 82 Alex Warren ~ You'll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1)

25 16 199 Michael Jackson ~ Bad

26 20 07 Dua Lipa ~ Live from Mexico

27 NE 01 Future ~ The Real Me

28 24 1262 Abba ~ Gold: Greatest Hits

29 NE 01 Jack White ~ Frozen Charlotte

30 NE 01 The Specials ~ Live from the Cathedral

31 26 162 Noah Kahan ~ Stick Season

32 27 1158 Fleetwood Mac ~ Rumours

33 41 13 My Chemical Romance ~ May Death Never Stop You

34 29 46 Sabrina Carpenter ~ Man's Best Friend

35 21 17 BTS ~ Arirang

36 35 101 Calvin Harris ~ 96 Months

37 33 459 Maroon 5 ~ Singles

38 34 99 Sabrina Carpenter ~ Short n' Sweet

39 36 149 Olivia Rodrigo ~ Guts

40 39 670 Arctic Monkeys ~ AM

41 37 731 Eminem ~ Curtain Call: The Hits

42 40 441 Katy Perry ~ Teenage Dream

43 38 269 Olivia Rodrigo ~ Sour

44 31 04 Myles Smith ~ My Mess, My Heart, My Life.

45 46 654 Oasis ~ Definitely Maybe

46 42 517 Red Hot Chili Peppers ~ Greatest Hits

47 43 1215 Queen ~ Greatest Hits

48 45 266 50 Cent ~ Best of 50 Cent

49 58 1247 Bob Marley and the Wailers ~ Legend

50 55 446 Bruno Mars ~ Doo-Wops & Hooligans

51 48 05 Sonny Fodera ~ Can We Do It All Again?

52 54 302 The Beatles ~ 1967-1970

53 52 375 Green Day ~ Greatest Hits: God's Favorite Band

54 49 14 Ella Langley ~ Dandelion

55 51 48 OneRepublic ~ The Collection

56 56 335 Rihanna ~ Good Girl Gone Bad

57 59 169 Post Malone ~ The Diamond Collection

58 RE 03 System of a Down ~ System of a Down

59 64 54 Avicii ~ Avicii Forever

60 53 55 Teddy Swims ~ I've Tried Everything But Therapy

61 60 406 Lady Gaga ~ The Fame

62 50 47 Sombr ~ I Barely Know Her

63 63 73 Tate McRae ~ So Close To What

64 65 468 George Michael ~ Twenty Five

65 67 489 Ed Sheeran ~ ÷

66 61 79 Madonna ~ Finally Enough Love

67 69 502 David Bowie ~ Legacy

68 87 10 Luke Combs ~ The Way I Am

69 71 365 Billy Joel ~ Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel

70 70 265 Whitney Houston ~ I Will Always Love You: The Best of Whitney Houston

71 72 259 Britney Spears ~ The Singles Collection

72 57 41 Taylor Swift ~ The Life of a Showgirl

73 68 116 The Cure ~ Greatest Hits

74 76 344 Lewis Capaldi ~ Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent

75 80 107 The Killers ~ Rebel Diamonds

76 44 254 Harry Styles ~ Fine Line

77 79 348 Phil Collins ~ The Singles

78 75 212 The Smiths ~ The Sound of The Smiths

79 47 157 Harry Styles ~ Harry's House

80 91 161 The Rolling Stones ~ Forty Licks

81 73 103 Ariana Grande ~ Eternal Sunshine

82 RE 42 My Chemical Romance ~ Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

83 74 113 Billie Eilish ~ Hit Me Hard and Soft

84 85 188 SZA ~ SOS

85 78 454 Dua Lipa ~ Dua Lipa

86 RE 03 Prospa ~ Free Your Mind

87 86 363 Lana Del Rey ~ Born to Die

88 77 186 Drake ~ Take Care

89 100 73 Sam Fender ~ People Watching

90 83 243 Kanye West ~ Graduation

91 84 206 Linkin Park ~ Hybrid Theory

92 88 118 Chappell Roan ~ The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess

93 90 110 Charli xcx ~ Brat

94 32 03 Muse ~ The Wow! Signal

95 66 20 Bad Bunny ~ Debí Tirar Más Fotos

96 97 111 Calvin Harris ~ 18 Months

97 89 205 Eminem ~ Curtain Call 2

98 NE 01 Adam Lambert ~ Adam

99 RE 600 Arctic Monkeys ~ Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

100 92 119 Foo Fighters ~ The Essential Foo Fighters

I think the charts are actually more accurate than ever. People have always listened to music that isn't necessarily current. It's just that the tracking of old music consumption has become possible with streaming and that's why it seems crazy for anyone who ever followed the charts. I'm not even sure making a "current" and "catalogue" chart would mean much. That would just make both charts less accurate than the combined one.

Charts aren't broken (at least those that aren't subjected to weird rules and just give you plain consumption). It's just reflecting the actual GP's listening habits more accurately than before.

4 minutes ago, Flocon said:

What bugs me the most for a long time now is how the UK Albums Charts are mostly Best Of.

Their singles chart is just as bad. All they'd need to have accurate and reflective charts is to get rid of all their weird rules to count streams which make no sense at all.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by Incandescent Glow

I can't ever imagine there ever being a consensus as to what counts as an "old" song/album and how long one is allowed to chart before being artificially limited in some way. It's controversial as is in countries with some kind of system like this in place. There will just be 2 charts (one for new one for old) that neither is representative of what people actually are consuming.

e.

38 minutes ago, Solaria said:

I know this is an unpopular opinion and I can smell the 'streaming should represent whats popular' NO. Streaming should represent what CURRENT MUSIC is popular. Everything else should be relegated to a catalog chart. Especially on Spotify.

I actually agree with this, they should phase out new songs from the charts after idk...3 months? At least for the top 10

Well if people actually made good music in the year of 2026 their songs would be hits. But people have begun to mostly listen to old music because the new music isn't hitting

Well, the fundamentals that charts measure have changed. They now measure uptake and active consumption, rather than just uptake. That means you're going to see a lot of longevity that would have been absurd 20 years ago.

The music industry is in shambles.

Only thing broken is how much radio matters

The GP is just not involved with the current music anymore unless it goes viral on tiktok or reels. That's how people discover new music. New music in general simply has no appeal with the masses. This is the effect of y'all caring so much what the likes of Fantango think. Acclaimed music...but no one in the real world enjoys lol

People will always go back to memorable melodic music.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by charot

58 minutes ago, DevilsRollTheDice said:

I would support a currant chart and a catalogue chart .

Honestly think it makes sense and is fair. Would say you are regulated to the catalogue chart once you drop out of the chart once.

Out of curiosity, would this mean an old song having a resurgence (e.g. Murder on the Dancefloor, Running Up That Hill) would chart on the "Current" chart if they did not previously chart during their initial release, but they would go on the "Catalogue" chart if they placed somewhere at release, but fell off?

The whole industry is in a really weird place. The switch to digital more or less just shifted the purchases online but most of the things remained the same, meanwhile now that the streaming is in full force it's a whole another world. The roll outs are different, the promo is different, the consumption is different, the charts are different... And I don't think anybody knows the 'solution' or where to go from here.

6 minutes ago, feelslikeadream said:

Out of curiosity, would this mean an old song having a resurgence (e.g. Murder on the Dancefloor, Running Up That Hill) would chart on the "Current" chart if they did not previously chart during their initial release, but they would go on the "Catalogue" chart if they placed somewhere at release, but fell off?

I think it could be governed by existing recurrent rules. Starting at 20 weeks, if a song falls off the chart, it will then reenter on catalogue charts. If a song didn't reach the 20 week threshold (like album bombs that chart a couple of weeks), they reenter normally.

I think Billboard could grant special exceptions like radio recurrence exceptions, but only in very special circumstances. I don't think an artist's death, for instance, which drives a momentary explosion in consumption, should be one of those exceptions. I wouldn't even count the MJ resurgence as a special exception. I would see RUTH as a candidate for that special exception if it had already charted 20 weeks because it was a genuine and longterm resurgence that included sustained interest on every chart component including top 40 radio.

I also think holiday songs should have their own chart. Charts exist for the small group of people who like tracking current, popular music. Basically every single chart record will be Christmas music in 10 years if Billboard and other charts don't do something. I just don't think songs that are seasonally popular give us the same information about trends, listening habits, and which artists are hot.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by DevilsRollTheDice

Someone said as soon as artists started to sell their masters there has been a sudden rise of old songs smashing, old songs pulling numbers isn't old new but that's too much, modern songs have no longevity

A combination of Kalshi and album bombs have kind of killed charts. I don't think 20 songs from the same artist should be able to chart for two weeks and make a ton of actual hits go recurrent

The charts have never been best at representing what's popular now. Old songs are still part of popular culture.