Get to Know the Official Charts by Ben Harrell

Get to Know the Official Charts – A Column by Ben Harrell – Global Music Link Editorial Team

Do you make good music? Then take the time to register your music with the Official Charts. Charting on this platform as an artist can broaden your reach, so give yourself the opportunity to get noticed in the industry. Think about it, you are not making music exclusively for music lovers in the UK; you are looking to make your mark on the world. 

Official Charts (OCC), founded in England, compiles data from digital and physical sales, and provides a number of genre-specific charts on a weekly basis.

Once you have a Tornado account (which we will talk about in the next section), you can configure all the metadata for your music. You will want to make sure that you register your releases at least two weeks before your music goes live.

So let’s get into registering your music.

For physical formats, you will need a catalogue number and Universal Product Code (UPC) for your music. For digital formats, you will also need an International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) in addition to the UPC.

Both physical and digital formats can be registered through an online application called Tornado, and to request an account, you can email chartsproduct@kantar.com.

Kantar will need the following information:

• Catalogue number
• Barcode
• Artist
• Title
• Record
• Company Hierarchy
• Published Dealer Price
• Release Date
• Details of each track

Physical formats of the product will need to be sent to Kantar at the following address:

Kantar, c/o The Chart Unit, Millward Brown UK, Olympus Avenue, Tachbrook Park, Warwick, CV34 6RJ

Lightning Live is the official mechanism to report physical sales to OCC. You will be given a Lightning Live Pre-Event Registration Form, and events will need to be registered two weeks in advance. The form should be emailed to the following addresses:

• Official Charts (operations@officialcharts.com)
• Millward Brown (lightning@kantar.com)

There is a fee for events, which is described below.

• £50+VAT ($65.215 dollars) per event for the first two events
• £30+VAT ($39.129 dollars) per event thereafter for events on the same tour

One thing to note is that the charting period for Official Charts is Friday through Thursday.

You will need to report your sales via post-event email notification (a ‘settlement sheet’), which should be sent to the following addresses:

• lightning@kantar.com
• operations@officialcharts.com

The email should include final sign-off from the label, venue and/or management reps. In addition, the email must contain the following details, by noon of the next day:

• Act Name
• Postcode
• Event Date
• Product
• Venue Name
• Quantity Sold
• Location

You will also need to report sales via the Lightning Live Portal.

Get to know the Official Charts and start registering. The registration of your music and the daily reporting of physical sales can be tedious tasks, but it is important to understand the benefits of laying down the infrastructure, and working on getting your music heard by listeners in the UK. Being able to have your music charted in the UK can open doors to the future.

Ben is the founder of Ambitions of a Writer, and the creator of Billboard and Bookings 101. 

Find out more at BenjHarrell.com.