It’s a new world out there in chart world.
Last week for the first time, Irish chart’s used streaming data to calculate chart position with sales. 100 streams = 1 sale. The first artist to top the charts under the new conditions was former X Factor star Ella Henderson.
The stats in the the industry show that streaming has trebled between July 2013 and July 2014. The brand new GFK Chart-Track is drawing down stream stats from Spotify, Deezer, Xbox and Qobuz to form the Irish chart with discussions in place with Google, Sony Unlimited, Rdio to join that panel.
The count as a valid stream a song must have been played for a minimum of 30 seconds before being counted towards charts. Commenting on the new chart era, IRMA’s Chairman, Willie Kavanagh said: “Streaming is still in its relative infancy, but we’re seeing people embrace it at a rapid pace. It’s an exciting time to be part of such a transformative industry. These new charts will be able to reflect a deeper insight to what the Irish public is listening to and in turn, providing interesting research for the music industry.”
The chart history goes that prior to 1992, charts were based on ship-out figures. IRMA formed a contract with GFK Chart-Track in 1992 to calculate charts based on consumer sales. in 2006 downloads were added to the charts and this month streams were included with a formed ratio of 100:1. To date all charts are formed off physical sales (HMV, Tower, Golden Discs), Download stores (iTunes, 7digital.ie etc), mobile phone operators (Nokia store etc) and now streaming (Spotify, Deezer, Xbox, Qobuz). Data is collected electronically each night and compiled weekly from Friday to Thursday.
To scale the quantity of tracks on offer on streaming sites, Xbox lead the way with 38 million track, Deezer with 30 million and Spotify with 20 million. Users are averaging 104 minutes of streaming per day (Spotify) and the access to streaming is as diverse as any to listen to music, phones, laptops, tablets, smart Hi-Fi’s, gaming consoles, in-car apps, smart TV’s and more.