UK top 40 chart to include streaming data

BBC Radio 1’s UK top 40 will include streaming data when compiling the charts, the station’s head of music has confirmed.

According to reports in the Guardian, George Ergatoudis announced the plans at an industry event on Monday, saying that the charts – which are primarily decided by digital downloads – will soon merge data from two sources from the Official Charts Company – one for streaming and one for sales.

Following the move that the US made back in 2007 to incorporate streaming data into the Billboard Hot 100, the new UK top 40 will include data from services such as Spotify, which gives listeners access to more than 20 million songs and adds approximately 22,000 new songs every day.

While the Billboard Hot 100 includes data from YouTube, it has not yet been disclosed whether the new UK chart format will follow suit.