http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36794105

17 July 2016
From the section Entertainment & Arts

Fewer records than ever before are entering the UK top 40 as fans keep streaming the same songs over and over again. But what does that mean for music and new artists in particular?

<Image caption Drake's One Dance has been number one for the past 14 weeks>

He only came for One Dance... but Drake has been hogging the limelight for three months.

On Friday, the star's single notched up a 14th week at number one - meaning he could soon break the Bryan Adams barrier, and become the UK's longest-running chart topper.

But behind that huge success lies another story, because One Dance isn't the best-selling record of the last seven days. It isn't even in the top 10.

In fact, Drake's single only topped the sales-only chart in the first three weeks of its reign. It's only the inclusion of streaming data (where 100 plays count as one sale) that has given him a lock on the number one spot. And that's something that's
starting to worry the music industry, because now that the charts measure consumption rather than purchases, they have practically ground to a halt.

In the first six months of 2016, there were 86 new entries in the UK singles chart. Ten years ago, that figure was 230.

And while artists like Beyonce, Rihanna and Calvin Harris continue to rack up the hits, new artists are being pushed out of the race.

"I think it's a problem," says Harry Magee, who manages acts like One Direction and Little Mix. "There's been a lot of talk about how hard it is to break a new act at the minute - and it certainly is. It's harder for artists and it's harder for the
industry. It's a problem we're still getting our heads around."

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