OCC rule change gives more leeway to special edition albums

06:55 | Monday September 15, 2008

Source: MW

By Gordon Masson.

 

Chart eligibility rules are being relaxed to allow record labels to release albums with additional content and packaging during the crucial fourth quarter.

 

Following months of consultation across the industry, the Official Charts Company (OCC) last week announced it would permit a wider range of audio material with extras to be packaged within chart-qualifying special editions.

 

The new rules will be introduced as a six-month trial from Monday, September 29 and will cover deluxe formats as well as albums packaged with merchandise.

If that means we're gonna get even more for our money them Im all for it!

does this mean we might now be allowed more than 3 new songs before an album has to chart and have it's sales counted separately? It could certainly see higher overall sales for some of the top albums of the year if so. I wonder what the restrictions are now though- there's no details in this article! :thinking:

Does that mean that the original and the deluxe sales will be added together?

 

That would be great :D

 

Yes, it means that an Album can now have extra Tracks added that are more

than 20% New Songs, and that Album will be allowed to Chart.

 

Before now, an Album broke OCC Rules if New Songs added were more than 20%

of what was on the original version. From now on it looks like you will be able

to add more new Tracks than that, without any bother.

 

It means that Sales Deluxe or 'Up-dated' versions of Albums, will be added to

the Sales of the original version.

 

Whether The OCC will do this for past Sales is another matter - like adding all

the Sales of the Deluxe 'Back In Black', to the original version.

 

Anyhow, it looks like the 'New' versions of 'Spirit' by Leona Lewis, &

'Rockferry' by Duffy, will be able to have more than just 2 or 3 'New'

Tracks added - and the 'New' versions will be added to the Sales of

the original versions.

 

 

from the print and digital editions of Music Week:

 

 

Chart eligibility rules are being relaxed to allow record labels to release albums with additional content and packaging during the crucial fourth quarter.

 

Following months of consultation across the industry, the Official Charts Company (OCC) last week announced it would permit a wider range of audio material with extras to be packaged within chart-qualifying special editions.

 

The new rules will be introduced as a six-month trial from Monday, September 29 and will cover deluxe formats as well as albums packaged with merchandise.

 

“This initiative has been driven by retail,” says OCC managing director Martin Talbot. “The overriding aim is to give labels the opportunity to put ‘value-added’ packages together to entice people to buy, while allowing the album to remain chart eligible.”

 

Last year an issue arose where additional audio on a reissued album of Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black resulted in the different versions having separate chart positions due to the existing chart rules.

 

Now, a standard album plus a reissue will be eligible for one chart position, provided that 100% of the original album appears on subsequent reformatted versions and the additional material has not been previously available to purchase in its entirety as a separate product.

 

This means that the reissue will be able to include unlimited additional audio and/or audio-visual material, either on the same disc or on an additional disc, with the sales counting towards the same chart position in the Official Albums Chart.

 

The existing 80% crossover rule will only apply when new versions of an album exclude tracks from the original version.

 

 

I don´t agree with this... If an album has so many new songs it will obviously make people who already own the older version to buy it just because of the new songs. So it should chart sepparetely.

yeah, unlimited new material may be a bit much. Like some artists who have done a 2CD package where the 1st is greatest hits and the 2nd is all new material.

 

Anyone could now relaunch their greatest hits CD alongside their new album on CD2 to falsely inflate their greatest hits sales for example as we would all buy again to get a hold of the new album and more casual fans are likely to pick this up thinking it a good bargain for more hits for their buck. hmmm :thinking:

seems a bit dodgy..