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danG
post Jun 24 2018, 08:43 PM
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ACR FAQs

What is ACR and when does it happen?
To help freshen the chart the OCC introduced the 'accelerated chart ratio' (ACR). This affects the ratio at which its streams are converted into sales. After a song has been in the chart for at least nine weeks, and has been in decline for three weeks in a row, its streaming points are effectively cut in half (its premium ratio will decrease from 1:100 to 1:200, and its ad-funded ratio likewise from 1:600 to 1:1200). A song can therefore be on ACR as early as week ten, although any song older than 3 years is automatically on ACR permanently, regardless of how long it has spent in the chart (except in specific circumstances). A song not on ACR is considered to be on SCR ('standard chart ratio'). ACR rules were first introduced in July 2017.

Can a song on ACR get back onto SCR?
Yes. A song on ACR can be reset to SCR if it experiences an increase in streams 25% greater than the market change week on week, provided it is within 3 years of its release. The song will be reset on the week it experiences the increase.

New rule: Any song (excluding Christmas songs) older than 3 years may be automatically reset under the same circumstances if the track has not charted in the Top 100 singles chart within the past 3 years.

In exceptional circumstances a record label may request a manual reset to SCR. Manual reset shall be strictly subject to Official Charts and CSC approval. If the label have any good reason for resetting the track (such as the release of a music video or it getting TikTok vitality), it will get one.

But won't a load of songs get resets in January once people stop listening to Christmas songs?
The OCC changed the rules from 2021 regarding January resets. What has happened in previous years is songs that have peaked long ago, but still fall within 3 years of release, got resets due to the year-end effect. One example of this in 2020 was Ed Sheeran's Perfect (which infamously continued to avoid ACR for over half the year, until it reached 3 years since it had its official single push and thus fell foul of that rule). To avoid this, the ACR automatic reset process is paused for the Xmas–NewYear transition, and the OCC invite labels to nominate tracks they wish to continue to promote and thus give a reset to. For example in 2021, manual resets caused Dua Lipa's 'Levitating' to re-peak at #5, Tate McCrae's 'You Broke Me First' to return to the top 10, amongst other re-entries in the top 40.

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Other Chart Rules FAQs

What's this I hear about Thursday streams not counting to the chart?
The OCC estimate streams from Thursday from services that do not provide their information in a timely enough manner. This is done in the interest in publishing the chart on a Friday evening to represent the previous seven days of sales and streaming. It is typically the case that, from the major platforms, Amazon do report on time, yet YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify do not - so their streams from Thursday are accounted for by an estimate. The estimate is based upon using a machine learning algorithm the OCC use that takes into account streaming trends. The exact details of how this algorithm works are not given to the general public. It is however safe to say that it is not done by way of a simple average of the previous six days' streams.

In the majority of cases, the estimate is fairly accurate. However if a major artist released on a Thursday, none of their streams for that day would count. Likewise if a major event happens that gives a boost to songs on a Thursday, such as Christmas Day, that may not be reflected accurately in the chart (though we'll never truly know to what extent).

Are signed CD singles no longer chart eligible?
No. As per the OCC: Any pre-signed or personalised physical product will not be eligible for inclusion in the chart (i.e. products featuring artist's signature, initial, autograph, writings, doodles and drawings made by artist in any part of physical product prior to sale and/or any other feature that makes the product unique such as numbering).

Are music video streams now counting towards the official chart?
Yes. They have done since July 2018. This includes official music videos from services such as YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. Unofficial or user-generated content featuring music will not count towards the chart. These typically don't impact the chart as much as audio streaming services as the majority of video streams are by people using YouTube as a free service.

Is an ad-funded (free) stream worth the same as a premium (paid-for) stream?
No. From July 2018, ratios depend on the kind of stream a song is getting. An ad-funded stream will count towards the chart at a standard ratio of 1:600, i.e. 600 ad-funded streams is deemed to be equal to one sale. A 'premium' stream (generated by a user who is paying for a subscription) will count at a standard ratio of 1:100.

Is an audio stream worth the same as a video stream?
Yes. Audio and video streams will count at the same rate, depending on whether they are premium or ad-funded.

How many tracks can an artist have chart at any one time?
Three, as a lead artist. The cap was introduced in July 2017, mostly as a response to the controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran having 16 tracks in the top 20 at once. An artist can have as many additional songs chart as possible as a featured artist, or if they are part of a group (e.g. Kanye West and Kids See Ghosts had multiple tracks in the same chart in 2018).

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Introducing of Streaming FAQs

So, what is streaming anyway?
Streaming is essentially the transmission of sound through a web network. It can refer to simple audio clips on websites for example, but in the context of this thread, it means playing a song, music video or album through a web service such as Spotify or YouTube. It also now refers to both audio and video streaming.

Where can I stream songs?
There are numerous different places to stream music. The main service used for audio streaming is Spotify, which takes up the vast majority of the market. Apple Music and Amazon Music also now make up a significant part of the market. For video streaming, the main service used is YouTube. Other services are Deezer, Tidal, Napster, O2 Tracks, Xbox Music, Google Play, Sony's Music Unlimited and rara, some of which are starting to do video streaming as well but are mostly for audio streaming.

Since when did it count to the singles chart?
From July 2014, audio streaming has been combined with download and physical sales to make up 'chart sales' which determine the Official Singles Chart. From July 2018, video streaming will also count towards a song's 'chart sales'.

What difference does this make to the official chart?
Streaming has made a huge impact on the official chart so far, and that's why it's so divisive. Typically speaking, it favours big hits over new songs, which take longer to build up. This means that new songs may be at a disadvantage to enter at #1, or the top 10, and therefore end up with a lower peak. Union J's You Got It All was #1 on sales at the end of 2014, but got knocked down to #2 due to far superior streaming from Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud. This made it the first song to miss #1 despite being the biggest seller of the week. Other songs to have lost out on the top spot due to streaming include Nick Jonas' Jealous, Sigma's Glitterball and Deorro's Five More Hours. The first song to be #1 officially without ever topping the sales chart was Justin Bieber's Sorry, which spent two weeks at #1 in November 2015 but was at #2 behind Adele's Hello on sales both weeks.

But wait, can't I just put a song on repeat and help it climb the chart?
No, only 10 streams count per user per day on any streaming service. For example, I could listen to Justin Bieber's Love Yourself 20 times on Spotify and 20 times on Apple Music today, but only the first 10 from Spotify and the first 10 from Apple Music will count.

On a similar note, you must listen to at least 30 seconds of the song for it to count. You cannot just press play and then skip it 9 further times to total 10 plays!

OK, so how does it work for albums then?
It's slightly different for albums. Streaming has been included amongst physical and digital sales since February 2015. Firstly, each stream is 0.001 sales this time, meaning that 1 sale is equal to 1000 streams (not 100). This means that sales have even more precedence in the album chart.



The top 12 most streamed tracks are taken from an album. The top 2 songs will be downweighted, to the average of the other 10 songs. This is to combat an album being artificially boosted by one or two hit singles. The total of these songs is then added together and divided by 1000 to give a streaming total for the album.

The OCC said of this method: "The reason for the down-weighting is to ensure that if an album features up to two runaway hit singles, streams of these tracks do not skew the performance of their parent album in the Official Albums Chart. Extreme examples of this include huge hits such as Blurred Lines on the Robin Thicke album of the same name, Get Lucky on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, All Of Me on John Legend’s album Love In The Future, or Uptown Funk on Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special - but this is also a broader issue affecting many more albums."



Otherwise, the same rules apply. Only 10 plays per user per day, and 30 seconds of each track must be heard.

Does streaming have a big effect on the album chart?
Yes. Certain albums that get little to no streaming will be knocked down considerably in the chart if they've sold very few copies, but an album can still get a good chart position without being particularly streaming friendly if the artist has a big enough fanbase who will buy the album. On the other hand, albums by streaming friendly artists will be helped considerably by streaming equivalent sales (this usually benefits hip-hop and rap artists), which could even get them the #1 position over an album that has sold more downloads and CDs. Streaming also largely benefits legacy albums and greatest hits compilations.

FAQs written by Dan/Joseph

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Reference

Previous Streaming FAQs thread
Artist cap and ACR announcement thread
Video streaming announcement thread
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Gambo
post Jun 27 2018, 08:21 AM
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A very timely - and handy - reference tool Dan, that clearly-explains the situation with streaming integration into the main charts clearly and concisely.

Only one extremely minor error - it's been announced video streams will count from W/C 6th July, not "W/E" (the W/E date will of course be 12th July).
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danG
post Jun 27 2018, 08:43 AM
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thanks, I had to guess because it wasn't made clear whether 6 July was a week ending date or not. I thought it would start this week but seemingly it'll be next week.
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Doctor Blind
post Jun 27 2018, 10:17 AM
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Thanks Dan and Joesph for this, very helpful!

Do we know if video streaming will have some component towards the album chart (as part of the 12 most-streamed tracks off an album formula) ?
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JosephBoone
post Jun 29 2018, 03:18 PM
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QUOTE(Doctor Blind @ Jun 27 2018, 11:17 AM) *
Thanks Dan and Joesph for this, very helpful!

Do we know if video streaming will have some component towards the album chart (as part of the 12 most-streamed tracks off an album formula) ?

The album chart isn't changing apparently!
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GTH
post Jun 30 2018, 09:26 PM
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QUOTE(JosephAvery @ Jun 29 2018, 04:18 PM) *
The album chart isn't changing apparently!


I definitely think that is the right decision in this case. Videos are very much a singles orientated form of music consumption, so not a good representation for how well an album is doing commercially.

Really useful thread, I hadn't previously noticed the 12 track rule for albums. Definitely a good thing when you look at albums like Drake's which has double the number of tracks, what would be a huge streaming advantage over acts like Florence, if streams from all tracks contributed.
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Martyn
post Jun 30 2018, 09:46 PM
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I have a question which I’ve asked before but can never find my answer.

Why do some soundtracks count towards the artist album chart and some only count to the compilation chart?
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danG
post Jun 30 2018, 10:35 PM
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Depends if it's recorded by the cast for the film (ie The Greatest Showman, Moana, counts for the albums chart) or if it's just a collection of songs by various artists that aren't in the film (ie Black Panther, Fifty Shades Of Grey, counts for the compilations chart).

Basically all the musicals and Disney kids films go to the album chart and the rest don't.
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danG
post Jul 2 2018, 01:29 PM
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based on today's chart update it seems the new rules won't be coming into effect this week then. either that or it's made no noticeable difference.
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danG
post Jul 2 2018, 03:35 PM
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Ah so there is missing YouTube data in the mid update but YouTube is supposedly counting this week, that makes sense.
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spiceboy
post Aug 16 2018, 12:14 AM
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I'm guessing you have to have a Youtube account to count towards the charts?
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pes
post Nov 1 2018, 12:05 AM
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A curiosity I know only 10 plays counts towards the chart but can
you listen to a song 100 times per day and that will counts on the total sales and plays for a song???


This post has been edited by pes: Nov 1 2018, 12:13 AM
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lewistgreen
post Nov 1 2018, 12:11 AM
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Nope it's capped at 10 plays for each listener so anything after that does not count.
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pes
post Nov 1 2018, 12:12 AM
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QUOTE(lewistgreen @ Nov 1 2018, 02:11 AM) *
Nope it's capped at 10 plays for each listener so anything after that does not count.

Ok thankss
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SmileyKylie
post Nov 19 2018, 09:55 PM
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Do live recordings count towards the singles chart?

For example Jack Savoretti is releasing instant grat Music Too Sad on Friday for his album released in March. The song is a live version from Venice with Kylie. Will it be added to sales of the original single for chart purposes?
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Brer
post Nov 20 2018, 12:53 PM
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If it's credited the same way it should count to the same song. It's still not going to even be close to the top 100 though so it hardly matters xx
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SmileyKylie
post Nov 21 2018, 11:05 AM
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lets see.....
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ben08
post Jul 15 2019, 04:13 PM
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So when are the 150:1 and 300:1 ratios used?
And what ratio is used for all-time sales?
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JosephBoone
post Jul 15 2019, 04:15 PM
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QUOTE(ben08 @ Jul 15 2019, 05:13 PM) *
So when are the 150:1 and 300:1 ratios used?
And what ratio is used for all-time sales?

Those ratios are not used.

All-time sales are applied using the SCR ratios - 100:1 for premium streams and 600:1 for ad-funded (free) streams.
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Bristolmans
post Jul 16 2019, 03:41 PM
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Can anyone tell me how many songs from an album does it take to count for the whole album, can you skip songs you don't like and how long of the song do you have to listen to for it count?

I'm hoping I've made sense
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