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What is it about?The official UK charts are compiled and overseen by "The Official UK Charts Company" (OCC) - a joint venture between the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and BARD (British Association of Record Dealers). It was established by the music industry to regulate and control the Chart compilation process and to ensure that the Charts represent an accurate assessment of popularity. Official UK Charts is governed by the Charts Supervisory Committee comprising representatives from retailers, record companies and broadcasters. Sales data is supplied by over 5,600 retailers including all the major high street chains as well as 600 independent stores covering 99% of the singles market, 95% of albums and 80% of the video market. "The Official UK Charts Company" used to be called "Chart Information Network" (CIN). The company was rebranded on 1st October 2001 to better reflect its core business and to be more consumer focused in preparation for the 50th Anniversary of the Official Singles Chart in November 2002. A code of conduct - the 'Chart Rules' - exists to govern eligibility for all the Official Charts. The Rules are designed to "prevent unfair advantage" being gained by one single or album over another. The basic rules are concerned with format ie the number of tracks on a single or album, their playing time and packaging. Any record company is free to release music in any format and at any length but formats that fail to meet the Official Chart rules are simply excluded from the Official Charts. The Chart Rules are developed and monitored by the Chart Supervisory Committee consisting of representatives from the BPI and BARD. Official contact for UK chart rules: What are the rules for singles?Besides other things like packaging and minimum dealer price, the
rules sets a limit of how long a single has to be in maximum to be
considered for the single charts.
What's the problem?Especially in dancefloor music, a track has several mixes and remixes, and they're usually much longer than a standard three minute airplay version. I love good made long mixes, and if a song is great I want all mixes in their full length versions on CD. Artists and record labels have to sell their releases to pay their expenses. One essential instrument to sell your relases are the charts. If a song finds its way into the charts, it gets radio airplay, more promotion, reaches a bigger audience and increases sales. I think so far it's OK, we all have to live and pay our bills. The problem is that to fulfill the CIN rules the labels are editing all those great long dancefloor mixes, or don't put it on CD anyway. This really sucks, because when you buy UK CD singles these days you only get mutilated shortened mixes for your hard earned money, and this is crap. I hope this will change with the new 2004 rules to get our value-for money CD dancefloor mixes back... How about other countries, is this only in UK?For a long time I thought this chart rule crap is unique in the
world and only belongs to UK. But then I recognised that for example
in Germany, there are also such rules, and they restricts for example
the length of limited edition bonus-CD packed with an album-CD to 20
minutes. However we don't have rules restricting the lengths of
singles, I think, at least sometimes you'll get 50+ minute Maxi-CDs
entering the charts. If you know about other restrictions like that, please let me know. Links
DisclaimerI take no responsibility that the informations provided here are correct and actual. If you know more about this or have comments or suggestions, please let me know. |
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