BPI's Platinum, Gold and Silver Awards to include streaming data for albums

 

by Tom Pakinkis

 

The BPI's Platinum, Gold and Silver Awards Programme is to include audio streaming data in its album certifications from this week.

 

The first albums benefiting from the incorporation of streaming will be announced via the BPI’s regular Twitter update this weekend.

 

Singles certifications in the UK have included streaming plays since July 2014 and this move brings albums in line.

 

The BPI Platinum, Gold and Silver Awards Programme will adopt the same approach and criteria that the Official Charts are using to calculate how streams contribute to an album’s sales performance.

 

To reflect the difference in weight between streaming and purchasing, the Programme will utilise Official Charts Company data, which takes the 12 most-streamed tracks from the standard version of an album, with the top two songs down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams will be divided by 1,000 and added to the physical and digital sales of the album (the 1,000 ratio representing 100 streams as an equivalent for one track, and 10 tracks for one album).

 

The inclusion of this new data has been backdated to the beginning of 2015, resulting in a higher than usual number of titles this week receiving new or upgraded certifications, including albums by artists such as Nicki Minaj, Placebo and Fall Out Boy.

 

© Music Week

Wonder if that means streaming will be included in YTD totals too?

That will really confuse things, won't it? :( Sad this had to happen as that makes it harder to find actual sales for a lot of albums/singles but I guess it's expected because this is what the US did when they introduced streaming.

Hopefully this means streaming will be included in album totals and overall album market totals too, or at least soon.

That will really confuse things, won't it? :( Sad this had to happen as that makes it harder to find actual sales for a lot of albums/singles but I guess it's expected because this is what the US did when they introduced streaming.

 

Streaming isn't included in RIAA album certifications yet.

That will really confuse things, won't it? :( Sad this had to happen as that makes it harder to find actual sales for a lot of albums/singles but I guess it's expected because this is what the US did when they introduced streaming.

 

It'll help me a lot though, as I won't have to spend ages estimating streaming adjustments to make the YTD positions work! :cheer:

From the OCC:

e famous Platinum, Gold and Silver certifications awarded by the BPI in recognition of sales milestones will include audio streaming data from this week.

 

The first albums to benefit from the incorporation of streaming include Madonna’s 1983 eponymous debut, which today is awarded Silver for combined sales of over 60,000, Placebo’s Once More With Feelings (Platinum, sales over 300,000) and Bombay Bicycle Club’s So Long, See You Tomorrow (Gold, sales over 100,000).

 

Singles certifications in the UK have included streaming plays since July 2014. Both adopt the same approach and criteria that the Official Charts are use to calculate how streams contribute to an single or album’s sales performance (See full methodology here).

 

The inclusion of streaming plays in the BPI Awards system for albums is the result of a significant shift in the way music is consumed. The BPI recently announced that 14.8 billion audio streams were served across streaming services, including Spotify, Deezer and Google Play – up 98% on 2013’s total.

 

The growth in streaming is expected to continue this year, with over 475 million audio streams now taking place every week.

Seems that, like the singles, data from 1994+ is being included, which explains why Madonna is Silver despite already having a Platinum certification.

Wait, so the previous streams the albums already had prior to this announcement wont count? Only whats been streamed since this was implemented last week or whatever? :/

 

Wait, so the previous streams the albums already had prior to this announcement wont count? Only whats been streamed since this was implemented last week or whatever? :/

Streams since January 1 will count.

 

Streams since January 1 will count.

 

Surely from Jan 4th, the first day that sales counted towards 2015 totals?

Surely from Jan 4th, the first day that sales counted towards 2015 totals?

That's correct, 4 January. I automatically thought of 1 January because of it being the start of the year.