UK Albums Chart to reflect streams with complicated math

UK Official Charts mathThe Official Albums Chart in the UK announced that the beginning in March, it will incorporate data from streaming services into its calculations. The equation it will use for determining rankings is designed to reflect the success of a whole album rather than seeing boosts due to a couple popular singles. The unique formula will downweigh the top two singles from an album to the average of the rest of the top 12 most-streamed tracks. Then it will add up the adjusted play counts of the album’s top streamed tracks and divide that total by 1,000.

The UK’s Official Singles Chart started included streams eight months ago. Several other nations have taken similar measures to reflect the popularity of streaming in their chart calculations. Billboard’s U.S. chart was updated in November, as were accounts for both Australia and New Zealand. Promusicae also announced an update to the Spanish chart in January.

Anna Washenko