Chart shakeup keeps track with broadband age of music

Almost 56 years after Al Martino topped the first singles chart with Here in My Heart, the company behind the weekly rundown has unveiled a shakeup designed to maintain its relevance in the broadband age.

The Official Charts Company (OCC) hopes the addition of an official "subscription plays chart" will help future-proof it as the music industry chases new revenue models. The new chart, believed to be the first of its kind, will measure the number of times individual tracks are played on the new type of service record label chiefs hope will rescue them from digital piracy and a slump in CD sales.

The chart will measure how many times songs are played by those who subscribe to "all you can eat" offerings from companies such as Napster, the Vodafone MusicStation service operated by Omnifone, HMV and the Nokia Music Store.

For a monthly fee, they offer subscribers unlimited access to millions of tracks. The subscription model has been slow to take off while record labels have resolved rights and licensing issues, but it is now expected to explode in popularity.

After signing a memorandum of understanding with ISPs to try to clamp down on illegal downloading, record labels will collaborate with them to launch services that will bundle access to millions of tracks with a monthly broadband or mobile phone subscription.

BSkyB plans to launch a subscription service combining a "global jukebox" with a set number of songs that can be downloaded and kept for a monthly fee. It has already signed a deal with Universal, home of U2 and Amy Winehouse, and expects to agree deals with the other big labels.

Later this year Finnish handset giant Nokia will launch Comes With Music, which offers unlimited music for one year, bundled with a mobile phone, for a one-off fee of between £100 and £300. Industry analysts also expect Apple's market leading iTunes Music Store to introduce a subscription offering at some point.

Rob Lewis, chief executive of Omnifone, which operates the MusicStation service for Vodafone, said: "As the international music market evolves, consumers will come to expect subscription-based unlimited music services as part of their digital music experience."

The OCC's managing director, Martin Talbot, said: "In the past we have basically counted individual sales of tracks, albums and other physical kinds of products. The music industry will be able to use [the chart] to promote legitimate use of music subscription services."

He said any discussions to merge the new subscription chart into the existing singles chart remained "a long way off".

The singles chart, which had been hit hard by heavy discounting, marketing stunts and declining sales, has received a shot in the arm thanks to the inclusion of download sales two years ago.

By the end of 2007 weekly download sales were averaging 2m units, making it the third best year for singles sales on record in the UK, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. A rule change that allowed tracks to chart even if there was no accompanying physical release has also allowed songs to climb the charts in a more organic fashion.

Talbot said this year total sales were likely to top 100m for the first time.

The new subscription plays chart includes many of the same tracks as the official singles chart, but with some important differences that are likely to become more pronounced as they gain in popularity. Album tracks from the likes of Glasvegas and the Verve feature prominently, as consumers sample songs before deciding whether to buy the album.



November 1952 Al Martino's Here in My Heart tops first singles chart, compiled by New Musical Express calling record shops

July 1956 First albums chart appears in Record Mirror, topped by Frank Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers

January 1964 First edition of Top of the Pops on BBC

July 1998 Chart Information Network, venture between record labels and stores, takes responsibility for charts. Will become Official Charts Company

April 2005 Digital downloads incorporated into charts

April 2006 Gnarls Barkley's Crazy becomes first single to reach No 1 on download sales alone

January 2007 Downloads eligible for charts without companion physical release


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