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Streaming data to be added to the UK albums chart

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 12 February 2015

So, it was confirmed last night that the UK’s Official Albums Chart is “being reshaped for the future of music”, and possibly the present, and maybe the recent past. Yes, they’re throwing some streaming stats into the mix, and why the hell not, that’s what I say. But I’m famously modern. I mean, I watched a telly programme on Netflix just last night.

It’s particularly good news for fans of maths, because there’s quite a sum behind this madness. It goes like this: Take the twelve most-streamed tracks from each album. From them, take the two with the most streams (which are likely the single releases, and therefore may well have had way more listens than all the other tracks) and “down-weight” them in line with “the average of the next ten”.

Then work out the total number of streams of all twelve tracks (ie the down-weighted totals for the top two plus the straight totals for the other ten) and divide that number by 1000. Then drop those figures in with the CD and download album sales figures and bake until a light brown. Serve with a cup of English tea.

And while that might all seem rather complicated, it’s designed to ensure that one hit single doesn’t unfairly skew the performance of an entire album, to the detriment of a long player that is enjoying good listening as a whole but doesn’t have that one track that goes sky high. Which seems like a damn fine methodology to me.

So much so, we’ll let the Official Charts Company have a little brag about it. “While the UK will not be the first market to introduce streams to the Official Albums Chart”, says the record industry’s stats machine, “it will be the first to do so using a new methodology designed to ensure that the rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles”.

So hurrah for everyone. Though let’s withhold judgement of the OCC’s coining of the term ‘stream factor’ to describe the final streaming stat for each album each week. And, in case you wondered, streaming stats influencing the album charts countdown from later this month will be coming from Deezer, Napster, Google Play, O2 Tracks, Rara, Rdio and XBox Music, but mainly, we suspect, Spotify.

And now the customary quote from OCC boss Martin Talbot: “The Official Charts Company’s mission is to compile the most accurate, reliable and up-to-date charts around, and in 2015 that means reflecting the popularity of streaming, alongside downloads, vinyl and – still the most popular album format – the CD. Initial indications are that the impact on actual chart positions will be modest to begin with, but we expect this to grow as streaming becomes increasingly popular”.