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Official Charts Company launches Trending Chart

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 16 February 2016

Currently trending in new chart news is the trending news that the Official Charts Company is launching a trendy new Trending Chart to show which trendy tracks are trending in the UK. From today, every week we’ll find out which 20 trendy tracks are the 20 trendiest.

Based on the first four days of sales and streaming data for each chart week, the new chart will show which songs are building the biggest buzz. The aim is to highlight future hits as new artists and tracks make their way up the main chart over a longer period of time, thanks to shifting release patterns, and the increased employment by labels (at last) of the so called ‘on air, on sale’ strategy.

According to the OCC, in the second half of last year the number of number one singles entering at the top of the chart almost halved, and an increasing number of singles that end up being hits are beginning their journey far lower down the chart. ‘All My Friends’ by Snakehips, for example, entered the chart at 98 and took eight weeks to break the top five. It’s tracks like this that the Trending Chart aims to flag up.

“I think for people like us, who are relatively unknown, this makes sense because people don’t know us nearly as much as the big artists out there”, say the Snakehips. “With ‘All My Friends’, it took people a while to get to know the track as well as who we are, so to show that it was picking up momentum in that way is great”.

Also commenting on the new trendy trends chart is MD of Universal Music UK’s commercial division Brian Rose, who added: “Following the success of Global Release Day and the move to ‘on air, on sale’, the Official Trending Chart adds a new layer of excitement and intel to the changing consumption habits of music fans”.

For fans of process, the new chart will rank all climbing tracks that have never been in the top ten, have been released in the last 24 months, and have been on the chart for fewer than 52 weeks. Artists will also be limited to two tracks per chart, so that the whole thing isn’t dominated by one superstar with a new album out that’s getting lots of streams.

The first Official Trending Chart will be out at lunchtime today.

UPDATE 16 Feb 15.19pm: The first Official Trending Chart is out, topped by Zara Larsson with ‘Lush Life’. “I’m so excited to be number one in the first EVER Official Trending Chart in the UK”, said the Swedish singer. “I love the UK – it’s amazing to be getting so much love”. Find out more here.