Albums sold at UK gigs to count toward UK charts

The UK’s Official Charts Company has developed a new system to see albums sold at live shows contribute to the territory’s official charts.

Titled Lightning Live, the system collecting sales has been tested over the past six months at various concerts.

Official Charts Company chief operating officer Omar Maskatiya said the new system follows approaches from both independent and major labels, who are increasingly using live events as a route to get their products to fans and new audiences.

“We strive constantly to ensure that the Official Charts reflects and responds to consumer behaviour and this move, following just a few months after the integration of streams, further underlines this strategy,” said Maskatiya.

The UK’s Official Albums Chart celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Today, it reflects sales made from physical formats (CDs, vinyl albums and cassettes), digital bundles, audio streams, digital downloads and across retailers including supermarkets, clothing stores, mail order operators, specialist entertainment chains, and independent dealers.

Its most recent move to reflect audio streams came into play in February following the launch of a streaming chart in May 2012. In July, the weekly volume of audio streams in the UK reached 500 million per week. Now, audio stream numbers in the UK are higher in one week than compared to a whole month in 2012.

Locally, the ARIA Singles chart began reflecting audio streams in November 2014. It uses an audio conversation rate reflective of the local market conditions and is based on the UK and Europe’s methodology.

Image: Muse playing at Wembley Stadium