The OCC have just published the latest editions of the chart rules for both singles and albums. For singles, there appears to be no change to the rules when compared with the last chart rules edition which was published in January 2020. For albums there has been a change which could increase the amount of chart sales an album gets from streaming. The maximum amount of tracks that can contribute towards an album's streaming sales total has been increased from 12 to 16. The top 2 tracks are still neutralised down to an average, but this average is now that of the next 14 tracks (or all remaining tracks where the album has less than 16 tracks) rather than 10. One effect of this though is that averaging sales across a maximum of 14 rather than 10 tracks could lead to the average of the top 2 tracks being reduced.

 

Singles: https://www.officialcharts.com/media/661003...es-jan-2022.pdf

 

Albums: https://www.officialcharts.com/media/661001...es-jan-2022.pdf

The OCC says,

"The aim of the Rules is to protect the integrity of the Charts and to ensure that they are an accurate reflection of the popularity of each recording by reference to genuine transactions."

 

That's a tall order!

 

Some rules.

Video streams are not eligible for the album charts.

 

Transactions of remix or live albums will not be combined with sales of the original studio version.

 

Where a track is credited to more than one artist – streams of that track will count equally towards each artist’s studio albums.

 

Where a track appears on more than one album by an artist, streams of this track will be attributed equally to

each studio album and a maximum of one greatest hits album (the hits title with the highest sales DUS for that

given week, or other hits title nominated in advance by label).