The Official Subscription Plays Chart was a music chart based on the number of plays of songs on subscription-based services in the United Kingdom. It was compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company (OCC), [1] until November 2013. [2] Each week's number one was published on a dedicated webpage of the OCC's official website [3] —this webpage first went live in mid-2009. [4]
The Official Subscription Plays Chart was launched for the first time on 22 September 2008, [5] for a trial period of six months. [6] Initially, it was solely based on digital plays from the subscription services HMV, MusicStation, Napster and the Nokia Music Store, [7] all of which charged users a monthly fee. [8] The data that these services supplied was compiled into a record chart of the 500 most-played tracks—each week also featured top-line market statistics. [5]
When first launched, the Official Subscription Plays Chart tracked between 3 million and 3.5 million digital plays per week [4] (with a weekly average of more than 3.2 million), across a library of approximately 340,000 unique tracks. [5] The first song to top the chart was "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. As well as songs that were charting high in the companion UK Singles Chart, the first ever Official Subscription Plays Chart also featured album tracks from records by bands such as Elbow, The Verve and Glasvegas. [9] According to the British Phonographic Industry, "the Official Subscription Plays Chart underlines the greater tendency to experiment among users of subscription services". [9]
In May 2012, the OCC launched the Official Audio Streaming Chart which was (according to the OCC Facebook page) "a much broader panel of the biggest streaming services including Spotify and Deezer. It also counts all audio streams whether that be ad-funded (e.g. free Spotify accounts), and premium subscription account streams." [10] The two charts ran alongside each other until November 2013 when the Subscription Plays Chart was scrapped and audio streams counted towards the Official Singles Chart from July 2014.
The UK Singles Downloads Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the music industry. Since July 2015, the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday.
The Official Charts Company is a British inter-professional organisation that compiles various "official" record charts in a number of European territories.
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the official Australian music chart in June 1988, succeeding the Kent Music Report, which had been Australia's national music sales charts since 1974.
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, the most notable being the inclusion of digital downloads in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.
The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the relevance of the chart dwindled in the 1990s as major-label ownership blurred the boundary between independent and major labels.
The UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart and the UK Independent Album Breakers Chart are music charts based on UK sales of singles and albums released on independent record labels by musical artists who have never made the UK top 20. It is compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company (OCC), and is first published on their official website on Friday evenings. The chart was first launched on 29 June 2009, and, according to Martin Talbot, managing director of the OCC, would have benefited acts such as Friendly Fires and Grizzly Bear.
The 1Xtra Chart is a discontinued weekly record chart based on sales of singles in the United Kingdom. It listed the 40 biggest-selling urban music songs released within a three-month time period, and featured genres such as hip hop, R&B, dancehall and rap. The chart was compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the UK music industry, and each week's new number one was announced on The 1Xtra Chart at 1 p.m. on Saturdays on BBC Radio 1Xtra. Adele Roberts took over from Sarah-Jane Crawford in spring 2012, and it had been hosted by Ronnie Herel until December 2010. The chart was also listed on the official websites of both BBC Radio 1 and the OCC.
The Official Audio Streaming Chart is a music chart based on plays of songs through audio streaming services in the United Kingdom. It features data from both premium and ad-supported services. It is compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company (OCC), and was initially published both on their official website OfficialCharts.com, and in the magazine Music Week.
The Official Classical Singles Chart was a record chart based on downloads and streaming of classical music in the United Kingdom. Each week's chart was compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) and was first published on Monday afternoon on their official website. The chart ran for 140 weeks from 2012 to 2015, during which time a total of 23 singles by 22 artists reached number one. The most successful artist was the Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi, who topped the chart with three singles for a total of 54 weeks, while the most successful record label was Decca Records, which spent 89 weeks at number one with six singles. Einaudi's track "I Giorni" from his album of the same name spent 51 weeks at number one, longer than any other single. In January 2013, following the release of Einaudi's album In a Time Lapse, singles by the pianist accounted for 13 of the Top 20 on the Official Classical Singles Chart. Martin Talbot, managing director of the OCC, described him as one of the chart's "biggest and most consistent stars".
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