Now that streaming is the most lucrative form of music consumption in Australia, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has announced that its Album Charts will now include data from music streaming services.
Beginning this month, the ARIA Album Charts will incorporate data from services like Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and Deezer, giving a more holistic view of what the country is listening to.
That said, music streams will still be dealt with differently to music purchases. ARIA has developed a conversion rate for streaming data which combines streams with other sales, and there’s a handy diagram below which explains how that will work.
“The ARIA Charts are an Australian institution, followed by the music industry and fans alike so it is essential that we continue to reflect how Australians are consuming music,” says ARIA CEO Dan Rosen.
“With streaming now the primary method of music consumption in Australia, ARIA can ensure that the ARIA Albums Chart will continue to be the most accurate indication of the nation’s favourite music each and every week.”
The move to add streaming to the ARIA Album Charts comes after streams were first added to the ARIA Singles Chart back in November 2014, and after music sales on Bandcamp were added to the ARIA Charts last year.
The first ARIA Albums Chart to incorporate streaming data will be release on Saturday, 13th May.
SEA Calculation:
1. The two tracks attracting most streams are reduced to the level of the average of the next eight highest streamed tracks associated with the album (or all tracks where an album has fewer than ten tracks). This ensures that albums with one or two hit singles do not distort the performance of an album within the albums chart.
2. After the methodology above is applied, the streams of the top ten tracks (or all tracks where an album has fewer than ten tracks) making up the album are aggregated together and converted using the streaming conversion factor established for the singles 1:175 and the widely used rate of ten tracks = one album.
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