The UK's Top 40 chart looks set to continue to adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of music as the Official Charts Company (OCC) has said that chart positions are "bound to" include online streaming services as some point.
Speaking to the BBC, OCC managing director Martin Talbot revealed that chart positions may someday be defined by a formula that factors in free music made available by increasingly-popular music streaming services such as Spotify and We7.
The OCC doesn't expect to implement any changes for at least another year, and adds that in terms of chart position, free streamed music would carry less weight than physical sales or paid-for downloads.
Commenting on the future of the UK's singles and albums charts, Mr Talbot had this to say:
"The key task that we've been getting to grips with over the past 18 months has been ensuring that post-download, and post-permanent ownership of music, we're also counting how consumers are consuming their music in other ways.
The charts have always been there as a popularity poll, as a means of identifying what are the hottest records of the moment. That's been relatively simple when people have bought stuff to keep forever. But that's going to become increasingly more complicated."
In 2005, the OCC first allowed paid-for digital downloads to influence chart positions. Today, an estimated 98 per cent of all singles sales are digital.
Despite a year-on-year growth of singles sales, some analysts predict that consumers may lose interest in owning music as a result of free or subscription-based streaming services gaining in popularity.
