The albums chart will begin to count video streams for the first time from the first week of 2023.

 

The move by the Official Charts Company is designed to ensure the chart reflects the widest range of music consumption possible, as the music industry moves from an ownership model towards access.

 

The change follows several months of discussion by the Chart Supervisory Committee, which comprises representatives of record labels, retailers and digital services from across the industry. It means that streams of videos from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube, Amazon Music and other key streaming services will count towards the chart from the start of next year.

 

The streams will feed into the SEA-2 methodology, ensuring that viral videos do not skew the albums chart by inflating the chart sales of albums with one or two tracks with particularly high streaming volumes.

 

Video streams will be treated the same as audio streams. Under SEA-2, streams of an album’s 16 most streamed tracks are aggregated, the top two tracks neutralised to the average of the next 14 and the total streams divided by 1,000 to create an album stream. The methodology, which was introduced in February 2015, is designed to ensure that the Official Albums Chart continues to reflect the popularity of albums as a body of work.

 

The move comes almost five years after video streams first counted towards the singles chart in July 2018. At the time, it was felt that admitting video streams to the albums chart might distort the true picture of album consumption, with video streams rarely integrated into an album playlist.

 

But the Chart Supervisory Committee believes that videos are now integrated more comprehensively within the album listening/viewing experience, across a wider range of platforms. Video streams now account for 6.7% of the total streaming market.

 

Charlotte De Burgh-Holder, Sony Music director of commercial analytics and Official Charts chair, said: “As the music market evolves, so too does the way we measure success. Official Charts have always set the gold standard for chart compilation, and their addition of video to the albums chart reflects their dedication to always having the clearest picture of how the UK consumes their favourite music.”

 

Utopia’s VP distribution services Henry Semmence said: “The Official Charts always strive to reflect the different ways we consume music in the UK. By including video streaming into the methodology of compiling the chart, we now have a better and more accurate picture of what is being consumed on a weekly basis.”

 

tl;dr video streaming will count to album chart from January, working the exact same way audio streams already do

My head hurts

Make the charts more stale why don’t you?

Makes sense to include them I guess but them having the same weighting as audio streams when premium streams are weighted 6x higher in singles is odd.

OCC: “How can we make album sales look less embarrassing”

I don’t understand how anyone can listen to an album on video stream!

OCC: “How can we make album sales look less embarrassing”

 

Bingo.

Wouldn’t this just be a competition of who has the best music videos?

Edited December 14, 20222 yr by Chloe00x

It's worth noting that music videos, for the most part, don't have a drastic effect on the singles chart so I don't think it'll bolster sales all that much at all in the long run.

It's worth noting that music videos, for the most part, don't have a drastic effect on the singles chart so I don't think it'll bolster sales all that much at all in the long run.

 

Most albums don't get many music videos nowadays either. Perhaps 2 or 3 songs and that's it. Maybe this'll push artists to releasing more music videos. Although I assume visualisers may also count now too?

 

It'll likely add a few hundred sales to some albums. A small boost for the album market.

 

I wonder if this is being done in preperation for Beyoncé to finally release the visuals of Renaissance? :cheeseblock:

I guess I just assumed they already counted? A good thing though, I don't think making the chart more interesting should be a reason to exclude data.

Most albums don't get many music videos nowadays either. Perhaps 2 or 3 songs and that's it. Maybe this'll push artists to releasing more music videos. Although I assume visualisers may also count now too?

 

It'll likely add a few hundred sales to some albums. A small boost for the album market.

I know most albums end up having either lyric videos or just an official YouTube video of the album tracks with only the artwork shown, so guess this would pick those up. Would hopefully encourage more music videos but not holding my breath.

 

On another note, it mentions the top 16 tracks are counted, but I thought it was 12. Has it always been 16 or was this updated recently?

 

It was increased to 16 at the start of 2022. It was 12 prior to this.

guess it makes sense if they already count them for singles

but cannot see a big effect

 

wish they had changed something else, especially in regards to GH

How can you watch a whole album? Weird!

well labels make lyrics videos for each song, I have to admit that I sometimes listen to album tracks on YT just cos of I can watch and read the lyrics at the same time

I did with SZA's album this week for instance, not all but for some of the tracks

well labels make lyrics videos for each song, I have to admit that I sometimes listen to album tracks on YT just cos of I can watch and read the lyrics at the same time

I did with SZA's album this week for instance, not all but for some of the tracks

 

I just check the lyrics while listening on my Apple Music!