I was just wondering what a sale in the UK singles chart counts as. Is there a list of requirements from the OCC?

 

I'm guessing physical releases count as one sale each, but what about digital EPs? Say an artist released a four track digital EP - would that count as four sales or one sale? What if people were to cherry pick remixes or B-sides?

 

Sorry for the thread but I've always wanted to know

1 EP download = 1 sale

 

Cherrypicked remixes count as a sale each and are all combined to a single entry. Cherrypicked B-Sides count as 1 sale for that B-Side.

Just a few of the extremely complicated rules used by the OCC.

 

3.0: Singles Definitions Summary

Product Format Dealer Price Maximum Playing Time and Content

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a. i) Digital Audio Track Audio Download Minimum £0.40 15 minutes (one audio track)

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b. i) Digital Single Bundle Audio Download Minimum £0.40 25 minutes and no more than four songs plus alternative versions of featured songs.

Playing time of video tracks will not count towards total permitted playing time providing the video is cut to substantially the same mix as featured audio tracks or is the only commercially available video for the tracks.

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c. i) “1 Track” CD Compact Disc Minimum £0.60 15 minutes and no more than one audio track. No multimedia content.

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d. i) “1 Track+” CD Compact Disc Minimum £1.20 15 minutes and one audio track plus additional audio track OR video OR ringtone.

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e. i) “Maxi” CD Enhanced Compact Disc Minimum £1.79 25 minutes and no more than four songs (audio or video) plus alternative audio

versions of featured songs.

ii) “Maxi” DVD Enhanced DVD Minimum £1.79 Playing time of video tracks will not count towards total permitted playing time providing the video is cut to substantially the same mix as featured audio tracks or is the only commercially available video for the tracks.

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f. i) “Maxi” DMD Digital Memory Device Minimum £2.49 25 minutes and no more than four songs (audio or video) plus alternative audio

versions of featured songs.

Playing time of video tracks will not count towards total permitted playing time providing the video is cut to substantially the same mix as featured audio only tracks or is the only commercially available video for the tracks. Maximum memory capacity of 256MB.

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g. i) 7-inch Vinyl up to 7" Minimum £0.50 25 minutes and no more than three tracks.

ii) 12-inch Vinyl over 7" Minimum £1.99 25 minutes and no more than four songs plus alternative versions of featured songs.

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or

Remix Single (see below)

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h. Remix Single One song title and any number of remixes of that featured title to a maximum of 40 minutes applicable to “Maxi” physical or digital formats and 12” vinyl formats. One promotional video for lead track only.

 

NOTES

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1. Playing Time refers to the amount of recorded material irrespective of content.

2. A Track is a continuous piece of recorded material.

3. Digital Minimum Dealer Price £0.40p : Only tracks with a minimum PPD of 40 pence or more shall be eligible for the Official Singles Chart. In the event that a record company has an alternative business model for the sale of downloads (i.e., one not based on a published dealer price), the price charged to the online digital retailer should not be less than 32 pence per track. OCC will monitor sales to ensure they are 'genuine sales'. Where OCC judges sales not to be genuine, they may be excluded from the chart at OCC's absolute discretion.

4. Singles Multi-packs are not eligible for the Official Singles Chart

5. Featured Song is defined as the lead track nominated by releasing label and common to all formats

4.0 Combining Formats for Singles Chart

DIGITAL

The following digital formats may be combined for chart placing.

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d. i) Digital Audio Track Permanent Digital Download Unlimited digital variants or alternative versions of featured song

may be combined for chart placing.

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e. ii) Digital Single Bundle Permanent Digital Download Maximum of 3 digital bundles may be combined for chart placing

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PHYSICAL

In addition to the digital formats, sales of a maximum of 3 physical formats may be combined for a chart placing and purposes of chart publication.

Note: A maximum of 2 formats from the Maxi Format section are chart eligible.

Quantity of Format Type Permitted Per Single Release

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Standard Formats

a. i) “1 Track” CD Compact Disc Any combination of formats from this section to the maximum

ii) “1 Track+” CD Compact Disc of 3 physical formats

iii) 7-inch Vinyl up to 7"

iv) 12-inch Vinyl over 7"

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Maxi Formats

b. i) “Maxi” CD (or Enhanced) or Vinyldisc Compact Disc 1 of each of the format types listed in this section are chart eligible,

ii) “Maxi” DVD (or Enhanced) or Vinyldisc DVD to a maximum of 2

iii) “Maxi” Dualdisc Dualdisc

iv) “Maxi” DMD Digital Memory Device

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There are even more of these rules on the OCC website. They will invent some more soon no-doubt as they make up the chart to suit the record industry and the BBC.

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting that a four track EP will count as one sale, but two cherrypicked songs from an EP count as two sales.