Five ways the singles chart can be fixed

At the minute, every time a song is streamed 150 times, it counts as one real-world "sale". The Official Charts Company recently upped that ratio from 100:1, but even that couldn't stop Ed's chart takeover.

Yet, if you look at the paid-for download chart, Divide doesn't dominate nearly as much. It only accounts for six songs in the top 20, with hits by Rag 'N' Bone Man and Katy Perry holding on to their positions.

The dilemma is that streaming is enjoying exponential rates of growth. Spotify added 10 million customers in the last six months; while Apple Music has attracted 20 million subscribers in less than two years.

One quick fix, suggested by reader Andy Mac, would be to impose a cap on individual users. "Once you hit 150 streams that count as a sale, no more streams from your account count toward the chart," he says. Others have suggested the limit should be just 20 streams.

Whether or not that's viable, the Charts Company needs to be much more nimble, tweaking its formula on a monthly basis to stop streams becoming a flood.