The UK’s official album chart is to include streaming data from the likes of Spotify and Deezer for the first time.
Streams were successfully added to the UK’s Official Singles Chart in July 2014 and will be added to album stats from the week of the BRIT awards (23 February).
The change to the tally reflects the dramatic growth in streaming stats which has doubled over the past year.
Over the last 12 months, the number of songs streamed by fans via audio streaming services in the UK has grown from 25m a day in January 2014 to 50m a day in January 2015. In 2014, the total number of audio streams served to music fans was just under 15bn.
Ed Sheeran’s X album generated more than 200m track streams while Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour accounted for over 140m track streams.
Korda Marshall, founder of Infectious Music and OCC, said: ‘The official charts are a UK institution, followed both by music fans and the industry, so we do not make changes to them lightly. But with more and more people listening to albums via streaming services, it is right that we are now going to reflect streaming in the official albums chart.
The change will come into effect from the week of the BRIT Awards and will include plays via services such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster and Google Play.
The charts will use a methodology which aims to reflect the popularity of the album as a whole, instead of just the most popular singles on the record.
All track streams will be counted with the top performing two songs to be 'down-weighted' in line with the average of the next 10. The streams will then be added together and divided by 1,000, with the result added to the physical sales of the album on CD, vinyl and digital.
The chart has reflected the UK’s biggest albums every week since the first chart was published by Record Mirror 59 years ago. Frank Sinatra’s Songs For Swinging Lovers was the first number one in summer 1956.
Streams were successfully added to the UK’s Official Singles Chart in July 2014 and will be added to album stats from the week of the BRIT awards (23 February).
The change to the tally reflects the dramatic growth in streaming stats which has doubled over the past year.
Over the last 12 months, the number of songs streamed by fans via audio streaming services in the UK has grown from 25m a day in January 2014 to 50m a day in January 2015. In 2014, the total number of audio streams served to music fans was just under 15bn.
Ed Sheeran’s X album generated more than 200m track streams while Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour accounted for over 140m track streams.
Korda Marshall, founder of Infectious Music and OCC, said: ‘The official charts are a UK institution, followed both by music fans and the industry, so we do not make changes to them lightly. But with more and more people listening to albums via streaming services, it is right that we are now going to reflect streaming in the official albums chart.
The change will come into effect from the week of the BRIT Awards and will include plays via services such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster and Google Play.
The charts will use a methodology which aims to reflect the popularity of the album as a whole, instead of just the most popular singles on the record.
All track streams will be counted with the top performing two songs to be 'down-weighted' in line with the average of the next 10. The streams will then be added together and divided by 1,000, with the result added to the physical sales of the album on CD, vinyl and digital.
The chart has reflected the UK’s biggest albums every week since the first chart was published by Record Mirror 59 years ago. Frank Sinatra’s Songs For Swinging Lovers was the first number one in summer 1956.
