🔵 The music industry's complex relationship with the charts

The business loves them, but do any fans care about charts in 2026?

A couple of days ago I stumbled onto an op-ed piece by Kenny Gates of PIAS/Universal, in which he laid out a clear and cogent case for why the UK charts are bordering on pointless in 2026.

Gates’ argument was that new releases are being lost amid catalogue comps and other older music surging into the charts and often taking the top spot, thanks largely to streaming volume. His example was a new Michael Jackson comp, which ensured that the new Kneecap album, and the new Mel C album with which it was competing, were both ultimately denied the top spot.

As he puts it:

“The UK Albums Chart was once marketed as a weekly snapshot of the nation’s musical pulse, a place where new artists could break through, where cultural moments mattered and where labels fought to push fresh music into the mainstream. Today it increasingly feels like something else entirely- a recycling system for legacy catalogue, reissues and endlessly looping “best ofs”.”

Objectively, I would say he has a point here; you only need to look at the charts and analyse recent activity to see that catalogue content, reissues and greatest hits are occupying an unhealthy amount of space on that Top 40.

The bigger problem, as I see it, is that the only people caring about the charts whatsoever are the people in the music industry itself: the labels, the rightsholders, the managers and, yes, the artists.

The fans? Not so much.

Herein lies the issue. I feel the charts stopped being any kind of cultural force when the monoculture we used to exist in was put to the sword. When the charts were accompanied by Top of the Pops here in the UK, you had a monument of influence: a prime-time pop show going out weekly, showcasing not just the artist at No. 1, but rising talent, new releases and more. Granted, TOTP focused on the singles chart, but the point was still that these charts were the empirical reflection of what new music was popular. The singles chart ensured that the album chart was also influential. On the radio - another beacon of the monoculture - artists would be congratulated on their new No. 1 album after a Top 40 rundown on Sunday evenings. Magazines would use these positions to guide whom they wrote about. Bricks and mortar retail would be giving prime placement to the Top 10 albums, ensuring they continued to sell en masse.

As the monoculture died, however, so did the charts’ cultural power. Top of the Pops disappeared. Physical albums died off. Downloads vied for our attention on stores with their own charts. Ultimately, streaming arrived and with that the balance of power shifted, not least because singular points of influence had been replaced by a massive, nebulous array of distractions and narrowcasted entertainment points.

The effect was the same worldwide.

Nonetheless, as the album remains the primary product that artists, labels and all involved choose to focus on, the album chart remains a key focus.

In many respects, it is understandable as to why: the charts provide(d) a singular measurement of success that the music industry could use as a gauge of sorts. Artists are just as complicit, as even the newer generations still recall the days when the charts meant something, and on that basis they remain keen to secure a No. 1 spot as a mark of success. Managers too, note which labels are having the hits and may use that to guide whom they might wish to sign to.

Equally, I would imagine these successes provide at least some implication of market value. A label that has had numerous chart-topping albums may be perceived as more valuable than one which has not.

This, however, is where things begin to fall apart.

In the desire to achieve those No.1 spots, the tail started wagging the dog. What fans wanted was sidelined increasingly in favour of securing those high chart placements by any means possible.

In recent times, that has led to what I’d call the “shark fin” campaign approach. This involved front-loading all marketing to aggressively push pre-sales and pre-saves (more on which in a mo), in order to ensure that the first week’s sales are as large as can be. What this oftens results in, however, is an album placing in the Top 5 in week one, and promptly crashing down (or even out altogether) of the charts the following week.

In turn, this has a knock-on effect to the campaign budget and lifespan. With budgets over-invested upfront, less is available to ensure a marathon, rather than a sprint. Now, it is not strange at all to see album campaigns wound down within 2-3 months, where once upon a time they could drag out over years.

Pre-saves provide a perfect example of where the industry arguably gets this wrong. Originally, they were devised as a convenience measure. It was David Emery, then working at Kobalt, who conceived the idea for a Laura Marling campaign, if I recall correctly. It was not, at that time, created with an aspiration of being what it is today: an industry-wide practice that forms a central focus in campaign strategies.

Pre-saves are a strange thing. The idea is that it is a convenience; you pre-save an album an on the day of release, and it is added into your streaming ‘library’. Whether this makes you play it is up for debate. Ergo, this is not the same as pre-sales, where one has paid the full price for an LP. Pre-sales generate revenue. Pre-saves? Debatable.

And yet, despite this, they remain a huge focus in campaigns. Why? Largely because they underpin that strategy to go big on week one, and land a high chart position.

Likewise vinyl variant covers. There’s a reason Taylor Swift has a ridiculous number of variants of her album available: it pushes fans to own the whole set, thus ensuring they buy the same release multiple times, in turn pushing up that chart position. This whole practice has - in my view anyway - gotten wildly out of hand, and it marked a notable shift back to treating fans like cash cows to be milked by any means… something I personally cannot stand.

From an industry perspective though, this all makes sense. All these strategies drive sales and streams and front-load that first week of sales. Doubtless industry pros are reading this thinking “I see no problem here” and if you only gauge this coldly in the sense of success via that chart placement, then it’s understandable as to why that’s the case. However I feel the principle issue is that this obsession with a chart placing that no fan really cares about (on the basis these charts no longer carry any cultural influence in their lives) is leading campaigns to executed with short-term goals in mind, and questionable uses of campaign budget.

Ultimately, one might argue that nobody wins. The campaigns are shorter, as too much budget was invested into week one sales. The fans are less exposed to the artist’s work, as the whole campaign runs out of steam more quickly. The artist therefore doesn’t necessarily gain much beyond bragging rights, as the campaigns are over and done with more quickly than ever.

On the whole then, these charts maintain a complex relationship in the recorded music space. I think the points made by Kenny Gates are correct, but I would argue that ultimately, his whole point is undermined by a wider truth, namely that outside of the music industry itself, fans are entirely oblivious to these charts. Even if the Official Charts Company did heed his point, the solution would presumably involve creating another chart, such that we have one for frontline album releases, and another for catalogue albums.

In the end though, I fear that solution would simply yield two charts for fans to care nothing about.

The solutions here are complex to resolve. This is an issue of cultural heft and relevance, and undoubtedly the UK charts - but really, ALL charts that have existed for decades now - have long since faded on that front.

Could that situation be recovered? Possibly, but I would argue that actually what would be required is comprehensive cultural focus back onto these charts as a genuine barometer of sentiment and influence. That is a problem that goes well beyond the charts themselves, and asks difficult questions as to what points of cultural influence we have in 2026 and beyond… and when we start tugging at that thread, things get very, very complicated indeed.

D.

🎧 listening to “Roadkillovercoat” by Busdriver. I feel like this 2007 album is something of an under-appreciated gem, which saw one of hip hop’s more lyrical nimble MCs partner with producers Nobody and Boom Bip to deliver something that still sounds good and fresh even now. For me Busdriver is in a similar vein to Aesop Rock; a highly agile, articulate MC who can also deliver much wit and snap within his rhymes. For whatever reason, his later work never quite landed with me in the same manner as this album, but I’ve been delighted to revisit it and conclude it’s lost none of its appeal all these years later.

📺 watching “Into The Drone: Inside Sunn O)))’s Legendary Amplifier Ritual with Stephen O’Malley | Evil Greed” on YouTube. How can Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))) touring his amp setup be so interesting? I’ve no idea, and perhaps this says more about me than anything, but this video was like catnip.

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Other points of note:

• I was interviewed recently by Pigeons & Planes for a piece that is now published about music marketing. I think the intention here was to avoid the whole Chaotic Good focus and instead chat to various marketing people in different spaces (indies, majors, agencies etc) and get their insight. For me, that’s a great thing if only because it provides a touch of reality amid much hyperbole of late.

• Shawn Reynaldo recently posted an article arguing that we are now talking about the music industry more than we are the music. Really the piece is sounding a degree of caution around too many commentators and potentially the quality of their output, so I was both flattered and relieved to see my own name (and Network Notes) mentioned as a more reliable source of commentary. More importantly though, he lists other newsletters worthy of a sub, and they’re all great recommendations. Thanks again for the mention though Shawn - you are very kind 🙏🏻

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Gleefully accepting music recommendations!

I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.

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