As expected, the committee that regulates the music charts in the UK has announced changes to its regulations, though the changes go a little further than many expected, and could lead to some radical changes in the make up of the main singles chart.
The changes mainly centre on the way physical and digital sales are included in the combined singles chart. As previously reported, at the moment digital sales are only counted in the combined chart when a physical release is also available, although digital stats are also counted the week before physical release and for two weeks after the physical release is deleted.
However, under new rules due to come into force at the start of 2007 all digital sales will be counted in the combined chart, oblivious of an accompanying physical release. This means that digital sales will start to appear in the singles chart as soon as they become available. Moreover singles only released digitally, or album tracks available as single track downloads, could now also appear in the combined singles chart for the first time.
Ronnie Traynor, COO of independent download platform TuneTribe, who have been pushing for wider inclusion of download sales in the singles chart for a while, welcomed the move. She told CMU: "This is very exciting. We have been pushing for this since day one. The chart is, after all, supposed to be a reflection of what music fans are consuming, oblivious of whether they consume it digitally or physically. The news is particularly exciting for grass roots and independent artists who have previously been ignored by the main singles chart, even if they have achieved considerable digital sales. We are in the process of launching a version 2 site which will help bands to both sell and promote their music. This will be linked to our new digital record label, we will be allowing our consumers to essentially act as an A&R team, and will offer digital record deals to artists who gain the most popularity through the site. This whole thing is now more exciting because, as of the New Year, those artists could now get into the overall singles chart."
The rule changes also mean that the line up of 'digital single bundles' - ie packages which include a single release and between one and three b-sides, as you would find on a CD single release - need not now be exactly the same as those of the physical release, as has been the case. This essentially increases the total number of 'packages' labels can make available around any one single release without affecting their chart eligibility.
Meanwhile, in the physical domain, the rule changes will mean that 'maxi single' releases will be able to provide consumers with more content without affecting chart eligibility (up from 20 minutes and three original tracks, to 25 minutes and four original tracks).
Last week's rules change announcement follows that previously reported recent announcement by the Entertainment Retailers Association, one of the chart's stakeholders, that it was willing to see an expansion of the digital stats included in the combined singles chart, although the changes announced last week go further than what was discussed by ERA at the time of that announcement.