Chart rule shake-up

The Official Charts Company (OCC) and the Chart Supervisory Committee have amended the rule banning the use of previous hits as subsequent B-sides.

Record labels will no longer be penalised for including an alternative version or remix of a hit single on a follow-up release, provided it has never been commercially available before.

Since new chart rules came into effect on 1 January this year, allowing digital singles to chart without a physical format, record labels can no longer artifically remove a single from the chart by physically deleting it.