The UK’s Official Albums Chart is being reshaped for the future of music, with audio streams counting towards it for the first time from the end of this month.

The move reflects the dramatic growth in streaming which has doubled over the past year. Streams were successfully added to the UK’s Official Singles Chart in July 2014, and streams will be added to the Official Albums Chart using a similar methodology.

The change is supported by the breadth of the British music industry, and will come into effect from the week of the BRIT Awards (wb Feb 23). The first Official Albums Chart Top 100 incorporating audio streams will be published on Sunday 1 March 2015 on OfficialCharts.com, plus across Official Chart media partners including BBC Radio 1, The Sun, Music Week and more.

The streaming data which will count towards the Official Albums Chart represents on-demand plays via services such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster, Google Play, O2 Tracks (Musicqubed), Rara, Rdio and XBox Music, all members of the Entertainment Retailers Association, co-owner of the Official Charts Company – along with record labels association the BPI.

Over the past 12 months, the number of songs streamed by fans via audio streaming services in the UK has grown from 25 million a day in January 2014 to 50 million a day in January 2015. In 2014, the total number of audio streams served to music fans was just under 15 billion.

A huge volume of these streams are delivered as a result of music fans listening to albums, with Ed Sheeran’s X album generating more than 200 million track streams, Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour over 140 million track streams and George Ezra’s Wanted On Voyage 70 million streams.

While the UK will not be the first market to introduce streams to the Official Albums Chart, it will be the first to do so using a new methodology designed to ensure that the rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles.

In order to ensure the continuing integrity of the Official Album Chart, all streams will be counted from the standard version of each album, but with the two most streamed tracks down-weighted to prevent them from skewing the album’s overall performance. The full methodology is outlined below.

The industry-backed move comes eight months after audio streaming first counted towards the Official Singles Chart for the first time, from the beginning of July 2014.

Official Charts Company Chairman Korda Marshall, founder of Infectious Music, said, “The Official Charts are a UK institution, followed both by music fans and the industry, so we do not make changes to them lightly. But with more and more people listening to albums via streaming services, it is right that we are now going to reflect streaming in the Official Albums Chart. It is particularly appropriate that this change will take place from BRITs week, when we will be celebrating some of today’s biggest album artists, like Ed Sheeran, George Ezra, alt-J and Royal Blood, among many others.”

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot says, “The Official Charts Company’s mission is to compile the most accurate, reliable and up-to-date charts around, and in 2015 that means reflecting the popularity of streaming, alongside downloads, vinyl and – still the most popular album format – the CD. Initial indications are that the impact on actual chart positions will be modest to begin with, but we expect this to grow as streaming becomes increasingly popular.”

"Reports of the death of the album have been exaggerated - the format is alive and well on Spotify, and indeed the majority of streams in the UK come from albums”, said Kevin Brown, Spotify’s Head of label relations for Europe. “We are delighted to see the consumption of albums by the millions of music fans on Spotify in the UK now being reflected in the Official Album Chart."

Christian Harris, UK MD, Deezer "The inclusion of streaming figures into the album chart is an important next step in strengthening the new audio economy. Not only will it more accurately reflect what people are listening to, but it reinforces the importance of digital as a powerful platform that helps artists reach fans and share a complete piece of work with them - something we are always keen to push in our editorial recommendations."

Kim Bayley, chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents every significant streaming service in the UK from Deezer to Spotify to Napster, RaRa and Rdio said, “This is a real milestone. Digital services have invested tens of millions of pounds in creating a streaming revolution which has benefited both music fans and the music industry, so we very much welcome this recognition by the Official Charts Company of the value of this growing sector. Streaming is a vital part of the new mixed economy of music in which physical and digital formats are thriving side- by-side.”

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor says, “The Official Charts are the definitive measure of an artist's popularity in the UK, so it's crucial they keep pace with the different ways that fans enjoy music. Streaming allows you to discover a whole universe of new and classic albums, from Rae Morris to Radiohead. The album is the ultimate expression of an artist's creativity, so we're delighted that fans listening to albums on streaming services will now be contributing to the Official Albums Chart."

The Official Albums Chart has reflected the UK’s biggest albums every week since the first chart was published by Record Mirror 59 years ago – with Frank Sinatra’s Songs For Swinging Lovers the first number one in Summer 1956. Since then, the chart has reflected Number 1s by artists as wide ranging as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Queen, Abba, Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, New Order, Oasis, Take That, Eminem, Rihanna and Adele.

Talbot says, “This is a timely change for the Official Albums Chart, coming as it does just over a year before its 60th anniversary. In those six decades, the chart has showcased the greatest musical artworks of all time – from The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Adele’s 21, right up to the latest sets by Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and George Ezra.

“The album is one of the most important art-forms of the past 50 years and this change will ensure that the Official Albums Chart maintains its position as the pre-eminent showcase of the album as a body of work.” 

Methodology overview:

While the UK will not be the first market to introduce streams to the Official Albums Chart, it will be the first to do so using a new methodology designed to ensure that the rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles. All streams will be counted from the standard version of each album, but with the two most streamed tracks down-weighted to prevent them from skewing the album’s overall performance.

Official Charts will take the 12 most-streamed tracks from each album. The top 2 will be down- weighted in line with the average of the next 10. These streams will then be added together and divided by 1,000. This ‘stream factor’ will then be added to the physical/digital sales of the album.

The reason for down-weighting the 2 most streamed tracks is to ensure that if an album features up to two smash hit singles, streams of these tracks do not skew the performance of their parent album in the Official Album Chart. Extreme examples of this might include huge hits such as Blurred Lines on the Robin Thicke album, Get Lucky on Random Access Memories, All Of Me on John Legend’s album Love In The Future, or Uptown Funk on Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special - but this is an even wider issue, with almost all albums featuring one or two singles whose streams could skew their album chart position.

The 1,000 ratio is used to reflect the broad difference in value between a track stream and the price paid for an album.