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Pretend-to-play downloads could be counted in charts

By | Published on Friday 10 July 2009

Yet more chart developments, well, possibly. Video game industry magazine MCV reports that the Official Charts Company is considering counting tracks downloaded via games like ‘Rock Band’ and ‘Guitar Hero’ for the UK music charts. Users of the pretend-to-play games can, of course, download the original recordings of songs that they might want to pretend to play via the respective games’ own download platforms.

Admitting that tracking music downloaded via the games is something being considered, Omar Maskatiya of the Official Charts Company told MCV: “We have been in discussion with record labels and the various games companies that host games which allow users to download master recording versions of artist tracks. In theory they could be eligible to be combined with downloads of the same tracks that take place from the wide range of digital retailing services that currently make up our chart panel”.

He continued: “Our brief is to ensure that the charts are the most accurate barometer of the best-selling tracks or singles in the UK. And the information we have to date suggests that the incredibly successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises can generate significant volume of master recording downloads that we would like to capture within our weekly survey. We are at various stages of discussion in terms of capturing these additional downloads so we are not talking about inclusion from next week, but it is certainly high on our agenda to follow through between now and the end of this year”.



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