American singer Katy Perry achieved the first number one on the Official Subscription Plays Chart.

The Official Subscription Plays Chart was a music chart based on the number of plays of songs on subscription-based services in the United Kingdom. It was compiled weekly by the Official Charts Company (OCC),[1] until November 2013.[2] Each week's number one was published on a dedicated webpage of the OCC's official website[3]—this webpage first went live in mid-2009.[4]

History

The Official Subscription Plays Chart was launched for the first time on 22 September 2008,[5] for a trial period of six months.[6] Initially, it was solely based on digital plays from the subscription services HMV, MusicStation, Napster and the Nokia Music Store,[7] all of which charged users a monthly fee.[8] The data that these services supplied was compiled into a record chart of the 500 most-played tracks—each week also featured top-line market statistics.[5]

When first launched, the Official Subscription Plays Chart tracked between 3 million and 3.5 million digital plays per week[4] (with a weekly average of more than 3.2 million), across a library of approximately 340,000 unique tracks.[5] The first song to top the chart was "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry. As well as songs that were charting high in the companion UK Singles Chart, the first ever Official Subscription Plays Chart also featured album tracks from records by bands such as Elbow, The Verve and Glasvegas.[9] According to the British Phonographic Industry, "the Official Subscription Plays Chart underlines the greater tendency to experiment among users of subscription services".[9]

In May 2012, the OCC launched the Official Audio Streaming Chart which was (according to the OCC Facebook page) "a much broader panel of the biggest streaming services including Spotify and Deezer. It also counts all audio streams whether that be ad-funded (e.g. free Spotify accounts), and premium subscription account streams."[10] The two charts ran alongside each other until November 2013 when the Subscription Plays Chart was scrapped and audio streams counted towards the Official Singles Chart from July 2014.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Charts We Compile". London: The Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 10 April 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2011. ... * Subscription Plays ...
  2. ^ "Subscription music chart launches in the UK". Houten: Telecompaper. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  3. ^ "Digital Plays Top 40". London: The Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 26 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  4. ^ a b "World-first as OCC charts ad-supported services". Music Week. London: United Business. 6 April 2009. ISSN 0265-1548. OCLC 60620772. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  5. ^ a b c Cardew, Ben (22 September 2008). Williams, Paul (ed.). "OCC launches subscriptions chart". Music Week. London: CMP. ISSN 0265-1548. OCLC 60620772. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  6. ^ "OCC führt Neuerungen in den UK-Charts ein" (in German). Munich: Kino.de. 23 September 2008. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  7. ^ "Music Top 500 Chart now tracks online subscriptions.(ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES)". Los Angeles: The Online Reporter. 26 September 2008. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  8. ^ Gibson, Owen (24 September 2008). "Chart shakeup keeps track with broadband age of music". The Guardian. London: Guardian Media. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 476290235. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Music subscription services get official chart". London: British Phonographic Industry. 23 September 2008. Archived from the original on 17 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  10. ^ "The UK's first Official Streaming Chart has arrived!". OCC. 10 May 2012. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018.

External links

UK music charts
Category