‘It’s not a pop-the-champagne moment any more’: is the UK album chart broken?

Last week, Ed Sheeran secured the fastest-selling album of the year so far with his latest release, – (Subtract). The achievement comes as little surprise. Indeed, after six consecutive No 1 albums (a combined total of 46 weeks at the top spot) – and prompting the Official Charts Company (OCC) to rewrite the singles chart rules after he landed 16 songs from ÷ in the Top 20 in 2017 – he’s no stranger to storming the charts.

But elsewhere in the official albums chart, things are much less secure. It’s increasingly common for artists to break into the Top 10 for one week before suddenly plummeting or disappearing altogether. Last month, Ellie Goulding reached No 1 with her new record, Higher Than Heaven; but in its second week, it dropped to No 84. Meanwhile, a confusing mix of plucky indie acts with loyal fanbases, decades-old releases and greatest hits compilations sit side by side in the chart, prompting questions about what they actually represent in 2023.

“The charts have lost validity as a barometer of the public’s musical interests,” says Gareth Dobson of Wichita Management, which represents acts such as Ride and Los Campesinos! One physical sale is equal to 150 song streams, and with artists able to clock up units from pre-order sales drives, including special edition releases, tickets for in-store performances and accompanying merchandise, rather than listens alone, he instead sees a No 1 album as an indicator of a successful marketing campaign.

“Chart position seems more about how you’ve managed to incentivise your fanbase rather than how popular you are,” he says, explaining why figures often begin to drop after the initial push. “It’s more of a status symbol than any true meaning of your artist’s value in the world.”

From a PR perspective, he says getting into the Top 10 is still an exciting feat, especially for smaller artists and the independent sector: two weeks ago, pop-rockers the Lottery Winners beat career artists Jessie Ware and the National to the top spot. However, with high ranking expected to be short-lived – the Lottery Winners didn’t last a second week in the Top 100 – the charts no longer hold the weight they once did.

“You used to put records out and, if they charted well you’d see if you could hang in there for a few weeks,” says Dobson. “Now there’s an automatic assumption that you will disappear from view almost literally the day after the first chart position. It’s not quite a pop-the-champagne moment any more. It’s very different to what it used to be.”

Since June 2014, songs played on streaming services such as Spotify have been included in the album chart count, a shift that rewards enduring listenership, rather than real-time enthusiasm. But on the other hand, some argue that with its continuing emphasis on physical product, the chart fails to reflect the public’s listening habits and neglects artists who rely exclusively on digital releases, among them many UK rappers.

“When you’ve got a race that relies largely on people purchasing music, it’s going to be skewed,” says Ian Johnsen, manager of Enter Shikari, who recently hit the No 1 spot for the first time in their 24-year career before dropping off the charts altogether the following week. Not to mention that turning to physical releases in order to score a chance of reaching the top of the charts comes with an additional environmental cost. “Everyone is trying to sell vinyl or CDs to make up for the fact that their streaming in the first week isn’t gonna be anywhere near the numbers of an Ed Sheeran or an Adele or whoever the megastar releasing an album at that time is,” he says. “As someone who collects vinyl, I like to see physical stuff out in the world, but it is weird thinking about all that plastic and cardboard.”

Though Johnsen believes the chart in its current form is “failing to catch up with the realities of the world”, he’s unsure how it could be amended without further affecting smaller acts. In the meantime, he sees ticket sales as a more honest reflection of the public’s engagement with an artist, partly because it can’t be gamed as much. “It’s very difficult to rally the troops around ticket sales like you can with a record,” he says. “You can buy a ticket for you and your mate, but it’s not like you’re telling your mum to as well.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, OCC chief executive Martin Talbot disagrees with the notion that the albums chart is unrepresentative of the nation’s taste, or that it needs fixing. He says the short stints of albums at No 1 is not the fault of the charts, but instead of the artists’ inability to break into the mainstream market via engagement with streaming services.

“The fact that Ellie Goulding hasn’t held on in the Top 20 shows how difficult it is,” he says. “It’s always been difficult to be successful, it’s always been difficult to rise up above the rest of the market. That’s kinda the way it is.” He tells me that such a sharp drop is an outlier and that most albums stick in the charts after their initial success.

As for the enduring chart positioning of old albums and compilations – Taylor Swift had nine albums in the Top 100 last week – Talbot pegs it to the “odd” albums market. “The fact that two or three years ago was the first time that Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division went into the Top 10, 40 years after it was first released – we have this perception [that] all these iconic records from the past were really big hits at the time, but they weren’t necessarily. So the albums chart has always been slightly strange in terms of the consumption and the music popularity that it reflects.” Less easily explained, then, is the fact that eight of the nine Swift albums currently in the chart have previously reached No 1.

While Talbot acknowledges that the rapid turnover of albums has become more common, he believes it can create more opportunity for new artists to experience a big moment. “It can be a profile builder that can help in [getting] their next deal, tours, radio play, all of those kinds of things. Actually having impact with the chart can really mean something,” he says.

Johnsen agrees that reaching the top of the charts can be an invaluable opportunity for marketing purposes, but he questions its long-term validity in such a time of flux. “It’s great for the people who it happens to, but once you’re having these battles, you think: is this really the best use of everyone’s time?” he says. “I would say to newer artists, don’t think about it too much. Think about nurturing an audience rather than achieving this one-off thing.”

• This article was updated on 18 May to correct an error: the Lottery Winners are not from Brighton.