The UK's official music chart to factor in streaming data

This week it has been reported that the 'official singles chart', which reveals the top 40 singles every Sunday on BBC's Radio 1, will soon take on streaming statistics to compile the most popular songs.

At present, the UK only factors in digital data of sales from significant retailers, whilst most of Europe and the US already use streaming figures to compile their official music charts.

Speaking at an industry event in London, the head of music at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, George Ergatoudis, announced its top 40 singles chart would start to take into account the number of times tracks are streamed on services including, Spotify and YouTube. Reiterating this via his Twitter handle: 

Due to the increasing numbers of music streaming in the UK, the plan to merge the data into the top 40 would result in a huge transitional change for the 'official singles chart', plans to factor streaming into the equation are thought to be actioned this summer.