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Chart rules tweak allows instant gratification tracks

By | Published on Wednesday 3 April 2013

Official Charts Company

The Official Charts Company has altered its rules regarding so called ‘instant gratification tracks’, according to Music Week.

This relates to the story that surrounded the surprise arrival of David Bowie’s new material on iTunes earlier this year. A first single went on sale at the same time as the Apple store started taking pre-orders for Bowie’s new long player. Anyone pre-ordering the new album could immediately download the single without an additional purchase. But because that ‘instant gratification track’ was deemed an album track by the charts system, those downloads did not count towards the week’s singles chart.

Bowie sold enough single track downloads in addition to the album pre-orders for the single to enter the top ten anyway, but some argued that ‘instant gratification tracks’ should be counted in the singles chart mix, given the single format has long been a loss-leader to promote an album for most artists, and the ‘instantly download the single when you pre-order the album’ arrangement is now very common.

Under the new rules, ‘instant gratification track’ downloads will count for the singles chart, providing the track is also concurrently available to buy on its own, the customer is immediately charged for the download, and the downloads tied to album pre-orders do not constitute more than 50% of overall singles sales. Only one track per album will qualify.

The latest charts rule update also allows albums that are sold bundled with gig tickets to be counted in the albums chart, providing both album and tickets can be bought separately, and the album and ticket together retail for a higher price than the ticket alone.



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