RADIO 1 boss says UK charts are soon to incorporate streaming data including Spotify for the first time ever.
George Ergatoudis made the comment while speaking on a panel at the Radio Academy Playlists: What Makes a Hit in 2014? event in London.
The charts traditionally only took into account physical sales, later incorporating online purchasing which was a milestone for the music industry.
In February 2013, the USA’s Billboard Hot 100 began incorporating YouTube streams into its data, leading to viral hits such as Baauer’s ‘Harlem Shake’.
At the time, the Official Charts Company’s Martin Talbot said that no similar moves were planned in the UK, insisting that the UK’s Official Singles Chart would remain a purely sales-based chart. A separate streaming chart has been compiled since May 2012.
Ergatoudis later took to Twitter to confirm the data would be taken from a host of streaming websites, not just Spotify.
