stuart test blog

Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) announced today that the NZ music charts will include statistics from the various online music stores available in NZ. This includes iTunes Music Store, Digirama, Amplifier, and the Telecom and Vodafone mobile stores. I’d also like to see a separate chart for downloaded music as it would be interesting to compare how songs/albums sales differ.

Recording Industry Association of New Zealand President Adam Holt says with the early emergence of Amplifier and digiRAMA, the strong music presence on the Telecom and Vodafone mobile platforms and the recent launch of iTunes’ New Zealand store, legal digital downloading is now well established in New Zealand.
RIANZ says the market has established a strong digital sales base the changes are necessary to ensure the chart continues to reflect how New Zealanders are buying music.
Holt says he expects the addition of digital sales to have an impact on the chart, especially on the Top 40 singles.
“We believe the introduction of digital sales will make the chart more dynamic,” Holt says. “The singles chart will experience more change than the albums chart simply because of the sharp increase in the sales of digital tracks and singles over the past 12 months.”