The UK’s official albums and singles charts will now take account of licensed and monetized streams from audio platform Soundcloud. From Friday September 21st, data from the site will be included in sales numbers calculated by the Official Charts Company. The development follows a recent decision to include YouTube views in chart data, as video consumption continues to solidify its dominance over audio streaming.
Streams from ad-funded tiers are significantly down-weighted. One hundred streams happening on a subscription tier is equivalent to one single sale, while 600 streams from free ad-funded tiers also counts for one regular sale.
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The Charts Company’s rules remain unchanged: the total number of streams for the twelve most popular tracks from the standard version of an album, on both premium and free tiers, are combined, divided by 1000 and subsequently added to an album’s physical and digital sales.
Speaking of the decision, Raoul Chatterjee, Director of Content Partnerships at SoundCloud said “Charts are a great measure of success for creators, and we’re excited their SoundCloud streams will now count toward the UK and Ireland’s official charts. SoundCloud is the foundational music platform for creators and we are committed to empowering them with the best tools and services to grow their careers.”
The charts are recorded by the Official Charts Company on behalf of the British music industry and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). SoundCloud plays will now be included in The Official Singles Chart, The Official Albums chart, and The Official Independent Singles Chart for both the UK and Ireland, in addition to a number of genre charts including Classical, Dance, R&B, and Rock.