The UK Top 40 singles chart will soon incorporate data from online music streaming services, according to Radio 1’s Head of Music George Ergatoudis.
Ergatoudis revealed the plans during a speech last night at the Radio Academy Playlists: What Makes a Hit in 2014? event in London.
Traditionally, Radio 1 has used sales data direct from The Official Charts Company to compile the UK Top 40 singles – but now they appear to be ready to follow the lead of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US and use streaming numbers as well.
After his revelation, Ergatoudis took to Twitter to provide further details on the plans and confirmed that the plan is to use data from a number of music streaming services, rather than just Spotify.
To be clear @PeteyJamesDP @littleboots @earshotcreative @BBCR1 @Spotify Not just Spotify, other music streaming services will be included.
— George Ergatoudis (@GeorgErgatoudis) February 17, 2014
If you’re wondering how much this shift will influence the UK Top 40 then it’s worth taking a look at The Official Charts Company’s ‘Official Streaming Chart Top 100’ – which they have been running since 2012 based on data from Spotify, Deezer, Blinkbox Music and Napster. The current top 3 is below, but you can see the full chart here.
Predictably, it’s pretty similar to the sales data chart (below) – so it’s unlikely that Radio 1’s adoption of streaming data is going to impact the upper echelons of the singles chart much.
Depending on what streaming services are used to collate the new chart figures, there may be more of an influence further down in the top 40 – with maybe more new bands and even remixes featured if the likes of Soundcloud are used.
In other music streaming news, the website Digital Music News has published findings of an independent financial report that states music streaming services will never be profitable.
The original report comes from Generator Research – and is well worth a read. The gist of it is that the current streaming model is unsustainable in its current form because of the short-term approach of leading record labels. Paul Resnikoff of Digital Music News says:
Generator blames major recording labels for that bleak future: instead of fostering long-term growth, labels are squeezing roughly 70% of royalties from streaming services, not to mention massive upfront millions and generous ownership shares. That unsustainable structure could spell the near-term collapse and consolidation of an overcrowded sector, according to the report.
