The increase in popularity of Running Up That Hill is anticipated to propel Kate Bush to the top of the charts this week.
The 1980s ballad has already reached number two due to its appearance in the Netflix smash series Stranger Things.
Now that the Charts have implemented a regulation prohibiting older songs from being penalized if their streaming increase, their prospects of reaching the top have increased.
Running Up That Hill is now the most-streamed song in the United Kingdom, with an average of 700,000 listens per day on Spotify.
Previously, these streams would have been considered 3,500 “sales.” This number will double to 7,000 this week.
All of this is due to an obscure but crucial regulation determining how charts are computed in the streaming era.
Historically, the Top 40 consisted of songs available for purchase in record stores, and each transaction was equal. If a record label does not press enough copies of a 7-inch or CD single, it could fail to make the list.
In some cases, record labels ceased production of a hit single to induce consumers to purchase the album instead (Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around and the Fugees’ Killing Me Softly are two examples).
In the age of streaming, however, every song is available everywhere, at all times. This causes a challenge for the graphs. If streams were considered on a like-for-like basis, legendary songs like Mr. Brightside by The Killers would never exit the Top 40, and Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits would be spending its 50th week in the Top 10.
To give other artists an opportunity and prevent the charts from growing stale, the record industry came up with the concept of “accelerated decline”
It operates in this manner. A new album generates one “sell” when it is streamed 100 times on a subscription service, such as Apple Music or Spotify Premium, or 600 times on an ad-supported service. However, older songs must receive 200 premium plays and 1,200 ad-funded streams before a “sell” is recorded.
This leads to the weird situation where Running Up That Hill was the most-streamed song in the UK last week (with over 2.5 million plays), yet Harry Styles was able to take the top spot with As It Was because it had a more favorable ratio of streams to sales.
Over the weekend, the Chart Supervisory Committee, which supervises the Top 40, overturned the fast decline regulation for Running Up That Hill, meaning that its streams are now worth the same as those of all surrounding singles, including Harry Styles.
The circumstance is uncommon, though not wholly unprecedented. The “standard” streaming ratios may be applied to any single whose sales grow by 25 percent week-over-week, under chart regulations.
Record labels can also request a “manual reset” of the ratio in “extraordinary circumstances,” such as when a track is slated for promotion.
EMI did precisely the same for Kate Bush. It is unclear why it took two weeks to implement the request (the rules specify that one week’s notice is adequate), but no one could deny the feel-good element of handing the star her first number-one single since 1978’s Wuthering Heights.
On Monday, the artist already had a 5,000-sale advantage against Styles, which is unlikely to be overcome.
Her success extends beyond the United Kingdom. Running Up That Hill has reached the top 10 in Australia, the United States, France, and Germany thanks to Stranger Things.
The celebrity reacted with a mixture of surprise and appreciation.
She issued a letter to her admirers on her website: “It’s difficult to comprehend how quickly everything has been unfolding.” So many young fans of the show are hearing the song for the very first time.
“The reaction to Running Up That Hill is something with its energy and will. A relationship between shows and their audiences that has existed entirely outside of the music industry. All of us were stunned to see the track burst!
The song’s popularity may perhaps continue to grow. According to the creators of Stranger Things, The Duffer Brothers, Running Up That Hill will play an even larger role in the July debut of the second half of the current season.
Bush herself already knows how the tale will conclude. The brothers told Empire magazine that she watches every moment in which her music is used and that the song has a “very particular place in the climax.”
Ross Duffer stated, “She has only been cool.” “We continue to ask her, ‘Can we use the music here?’ Why not here? I hope we are not being irritated!”
