Ed Sheeran success forces rule change to NZ Top 40 chart

Earlier this year Sheeran broke records by having all 16 songs from his latest album Divide on the NZ Top 40 singles chart at the same time.

This sparked Recorded Music New Zealand to limit artists to having only four of their most popular songs from an album appear on the chart at one time.

Chart compiler Paul Kennedy says the rule change will stop artists from completely dominating the chart.

“It happened all across the world where the album came out and it was just so dominant that the charts were full of all of the same artist.”

“That wouldn’t happen anymore.”

The rules shake up has been prompted by seismic changes to the music industry and how it’s consumed – with streaming becoming the number one medium for listening to music in New Zealand. It generates 50 per cent of total industry revenues according to figures released in April.

The NZ Top 40 singles chart, a constant in New Zealand popular music since 1975, is now made up of a combination of sales and streams.

What won’t be changing is the streaming ratio, which will stay the same at 175:1. This means 175 streams equals one “sale” of a song.

“We think the balance of streams to sales is still correct because that is really based more on the potential earnings from a stream versus a sale in New Zealand,” says Mr Kennedy.

“We didn't feel that was actually the problem, it was more to do with the market and how people are consuming music."

The tweak – which was made in consultation with record labels and members of Recorded Music – was implemented in June but hasn’t yet come into play.