How does the UK Charts Company get the total sales for singles and albums each week? There's sooooo many places selling music...

Isn't it through the barcodes during the purchase?

Yeh, that's what I thought...

 

Not sure like.. :huh:

yes barcodes, that's right

So is it like whenever the CD is scanned say at HMV the info is sent to the OCC and is then compiled into the chart

How genius :o i thought :lol: that each shop counted up each cd sale every night and then sent the info on :lol:

bt.. what about online music sales like amazon?

bt.. what about online music sales like amazon?

I think there downloads are counting. How many times a track gets downloaded.

 

BTW I don't think that if a CD is scanned the OCC will get an info. I think every day the shops have to inform the OCC about the sales.

Not each individual shop though...probably head office of each store compiles the sales and passes them onto the OCC

 

Reduced singles always confuse me though as they scan through the till as 'reduced music' with a different barcode so you don't actually know what single it is thats being bought

This is from the FAQ section of the OCC website.

 

Q3. How are the Official UK Charts compiled?

 

A. The Official UK Charts Company uses a sophisticated computer system that takes retail sales information from any UK store selling in excess of 100 pieces of audio or video per week (excluding garages and mail order clubs).

 

Over 6,200 retailers (including all the major high street chains, approximately 600 independent stores and all major internet retailers) are linked to a central computer that reads the barcodes of every item as it is sold. These contributing outlets create the 'Universe' or 'Charts panel'.

 

The Official Chart returning stores cover 99% of the singles market, 95% of albums and 85% of the video market. Advanced weighting methodology is used to arrive at the total number of units sold. A number of security checks to detect sales irregularities are in place to ensure the Charts are a true reflection of the UK's most popular records.

 

The information is collected from Sunday to Saturday and the Official Chart is finalised between the close of business on Saturday for noon the following day. The first reveal of each new Official Chart is from 4pm on Sundays on BBC Radio 1.