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Streaming data will be in the UK singles chart “very soon”, says Radio 1 man

By | Published on Tuesday 18 February 2014

Official Charts Company

So, when exactly is streaming data going to be incorporated into the UK singles chart? Germany, Sweden, Norway and America are all already doing it, and as we all know, they’re the cool kids in the playground, and we wouldn’t want to be excluded from that gang. I mean, then we’d have to hang out with Canada and Spain.

Well, “within months” seems to be the consensus in the labels at the moment, with one source going with “within weeks”, though it’s still not entirely clear what the maths will look like once purchase numbers are mixed up with streaming data. And no one’s entirely clear how the German, Swedish, Norwegian and American industries have addressed that challenge – though there’s no real standard yet to bring charts around the world in line with each other.

Either way, it seems certain now that it’s such mathematical considerations that are delaying the inclusion of streams in the big UK Top 40. There was chatter in some quarters last week that it was the retailers that were holding things back, though insiders at the big entertainment retail firms deny that is the case, pointing out that the Entertainment Retailers Association, which controls the retail sector’s half of the Official Charts Company, counts Deezer, Spotify, Rdio and Rara as members, and not iTunes.

Meanwhile, Radio 1 music supremo George Ergatoudis reportedly confirmed to a Radio Academy event last night that streaming data would “very soon” be included in the big fat chart his radio station airs each Sunday evening. Earshot Creative tweeted from the event: “So @GeorgErgatoudis has just announced that @BBCR1 will v soon be including @Spotify streams in the Top 40 charts not just sales!” Ergatoudis himself then clarified: “Not just Spotify, other music streaming services will be included”.

Of course the big question is “does that include YouTube”, because doing so makes the aforementioned equation challenge all the harder – what about user-generated content using recordings, what happens with pre-release content uploaded to the video site, and do you allow YouTube phenomena like that ‘Harlem Shake’ malarkey that bothered our brains this time last year to skew your top ten, as happened in the US when Billboard incorporated data from the video site into its Hot 100?

So, lots to consider then. And there was you thinking that the chart was just an excuse to get major label pop records name-checked in Metro and The Sun each Monday morning.



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