The Taylor Swift and Katy Perry feud continues. Just as Katy Perry is about to release her new album, Taylor Swift has decided to pick the same day to release all her music on every streaming service.
With streaming counting towards chart success these days, I wonder how that might affect chart positions and sales. Just love a good scrag fight. 
It was a flop.
I just donāt know how you can legitimately call the highest selling album in a calendar year a flop. Not good? Agreed. Flop? Hardly.
And I still donāt think she will ever top Crazy In Love. #BangerAlert
All on TeamTaylor. Katy Perry hasnāt done anything good since Teenage Dream.
Coincidentally, Sydney Morning Herald has a piece on her āfailureā today:
In other news, the new album from Phoenix was released the other day to streaming. Iām in love with it.
Interesting read. Perhaps she needs to follow the Lady Gaga route and reinvent herself with a āMillion Reasonsā type track.
As for the new Phoenix, havenāt heard that yet. loving the new Radiohead and The National tracks though.
Both Lady Ga Ga and Katy Perry have tried different styles of music and that explains the drop in popularity. Some artists are happy to keep rolling out the same sounding pop tracks with continued success but eventually audiences get bored with them too.
Milky Chanceās new album gave me that feeling. No change to his musical style whatsoever since āStolen Danceā. Boring and utterly German.
Compare that to artists like Foster the People or The Wombats (favourites of mine) - each album is an innovation of some sort.
Looks like the UKās Official Charts is making the first step to correcting the problems with streaming services unfairly stuffing up Singles Charts these days.
[quote]
The Official Charts Company is bringing in new rules for its singles chart, in a bid to encourage diversity and new artists to the Top 100. So, does this mean the end of the likes of Ed Sheeran and Drakeās chart dominance? Well, yes, actually.
The new rules include a cap on the number of tracks by any one artist that can feature in the Top 100. So, from this Friday, July 30, only the three most popular tracks by a lead artist will be eligible for the Official Singles Chart. Yep, the days of Ed Sheeran having sixteen songs in the singles chart Top 20 are officially over.
In addition to the cap, the streams to sales ratio will be cut in an attempt to āaccelerateā the disappearance of long-reigning tracks from the Official Singles Chart.
After a song has racked up at least 10 weeks in the chart and has declined in sales for three, its streaming ratio will be cut from 150:1 to 300:1, so actual sales become more worthwhile.
Talking to Music Week, the chief executive of the Official Charts Company, Martin Talbot, insisted the rule changes were about āsupporting new musicā. āThis is not a chart for album tracks; we want to remain the Official Singles Chart, for singles,ā he explained.
Martin also added: āItās tougher than ever for new music and developing artists to break through, and this is us doing our bitā¦ This is about injecting energy back into the chart.ā
The first chart under the new rules will be revealed on Friday, July 7. The move has been approved by both major and independent record labels, retailers, digital music services and BBC Radio 1 alike, so expect to hear a very different kind of rundown in the future. But weāre not so sure Ed and Drake will be all that pleased. Sorry, lads. [/quote]
Good to see the crackdown in album tracks being released as āsinglesā. I think the reductions in streaming measurements is also necessary but doesnāt go far enough since it only kicks in after 10 weeks.
I honestly always found this really strange. A single should really be a taste for an LP, Album, EP or a whole new style of song. It would be really weird hearing something like an prelude or an interlude track in the charts. Honestly not too sure if ARIA has something like this already.
I just checked out the ARIA charts and Iām horrified delighted that Closer by The Chainsmokers is still 13 the dance singles (and has gone platinum tenfold).
They donāt. They started giving more weight to streaming and radio airplay and have ended with same rubbish formula for their Singles Charts.
I really think the charts are being stuffed by streaming listens compared to sales. All the big name artists are dominating the charts and therefore radio airplay but it doesnāt translate to sales. They need to look at what Britainās doing here and do the same in Australia, if not more so.
This is what annoys me about how under represented songs are in the charts and how they donāt get the radio airplay they deserve, as a result.
These songs have gone platinum or gold but hardly get any radio airplay or are seen at the top of the charts:
P The Cure - Lady Gaga (Highest Position 10)
P Waves - Dean Lewis (Highest Position 12)
G Moments - Bliss N Eso Feat. Gavin James (Highest Position 25)
P Symphony - Clean Bandit Feat. Zara Larsson (Highest Position 4)
Meanwhile this stuff is put on high rotation airplay for weeks and is at the top the charts but does not sell as much or much more.
G Strip That Down - Liam Payne Feat. Quavo (Highest Position 2)
P Sign Of The Times - Harry Styles (Highest Position 1)
P Slow Hands - Niall Horan (Highest Position 3)
P Green Light - Lorde (Highest Position 4)
Itās all very suss.
New Killers song is cringe and shithouse.
I see 7 inch and 12 inch vinyl singles are making a comeback now too!!
But the pricesā¦ OMG
JB Hi-Fi has 7 inch singles at around $17-20, and 12 inch at $25-35.
Which is 10 to 20 times the price of the song on iTunes.
Though you do get a B-side with the vinyl (usually).
Back in the 80s, 7 inchers were usually $3, and $6 for a 12 inch.
I know the low vinyl volumes are the main reason for the high prices these days.
A couple of years back I had a look at the JB HiFi collection of vinyls and they were all ~$40.
Had some good stuff on vinyl too - The Wombats and Bluejuice. Was tempted until I realised I didnāt have a record player.
I was also kind of tempted to buy a vinyl LP just for the feel, smell and nostalgia, but yes, I donāt have a turntable either!
Sony Music is launching The ShareSpace in October, a project aiming to find the next pop star. It supposedly replaces X Factor as Sonyās music talent contest.
Itās a shame that the recent success of indie music hasnāt transpired onto the ARIA singles chart. Instead, we continue to be subjected to āmasterpiecesā such as āLook What You Made Me Doā and āDespacitoā. 
Just on the topic of indie music, I think itās ironic that indie music is often regarded as being one of the defining genres of this decade, but the genre actually achieved more mainstream success in the Mid-Late 2000ās;
Thereās plenty more examples, but they are four noteworthy ones. Really, āPumped Up Kicksā and āSomebody that I used to Knowā are the only indie songs which have achieved mass success this decade.