The Official Charts Company has announced details of a change in its conversion rate to reflect the rise of streaming.

Introduced into the chart in 2014, streams have previously been equated to sales of downloads by being divided by 100. As of January 2017, they will be divided by 150, with the rate to change from 100:1 to 150:1.

The OCC is committed to reviewing the rate and this change reflects the rise in streaming during recent years. Back in 2014, the number of streams delivered per week was 275 million, that figure has now swollen to 990 million, as a result of increased use of streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon, Google Play, Deezer and Napster.

Earlier this month, Apple announced its music streaming service had passed the 20m paid-for subscribers milestone for the first time.

Official Charts chief executive Martin Talbot says: “It is testament to the rapidly changing nature of music consumption in the UK - and the huge shift we are seeing towards streaming - that we are updating the way we measure the contribution of streams to the make-up of the Official Charts as quickly as we are. Streaming is growing exponentially and the weighting we use to reflect its impact will inevitably keep evolving with it.”

Speaking exclusively to Music Week earlier this month, Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge said streaming platforms “need our help to grow and develop”.

See today's print edition of Music Week for full analysis of what the move will mean for the charts.

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