Nz Revamps Sales Charts

The New Zealand record industry has new charts and a new TV showcase for chart acts.

After a major reworking of its chart auditing processes, the Recording Industry Assn. of New Zealand (RIANZ) published the first of what it calls new "valid and legitimate" top 40 singles and album listings April 21. They appeared four days after the first broadcast of New Zealand's own version of the BBC's venerable U.K. chart rundown show, "Top of the Pops" (TOTP).

RIANZ chief executive Terence O'Neill-Joyce says the chart switch followed research indicating that consumer interest in the official listings had waned.

"The whole project has been about re-emphasizing the chart," O'Neill-Joyce says.

The former top 50 album chart is now a top 40, based on over-the-counter sales from music retailers. The majority supply scanned point-of-sale data to new chart compiler Music Sauce. Previously, all sales were written down and given to RIANZ, which compiled the charts. A few retailers still supply data in that format to Music Sauce.

The singles top 40 is based on a 50/50 split of scanned sales and radio play that Music Sauce monitors. RIANZ introduced airplay to the New Zealand singles chart in September 1999.

The changes include redesigning the version of the chart that RIANZ distributes to record stores, O'Neill-Joyce adds.

"We're moving away from an antique piece of paper which didn't excite anybody to an A3, four-color format including 'heatseekers' and a DVD sales [chart] and a new Web site," he says. "It's very sexy-looking now. One hopes it will enthuse people to go and buy more records."

RETAIL REACTION

Retail has largely welcomed the changes.

Sean Coleman is managing director of New Zealand's biggest specialist music chain, Sounds, which has 53 stores nationally and claims a 25% national market share.

Sounds dropped the RIANZ chart in-store several years ago in favor of a chart created in-house. "The RIANZ chart had definitely lost legitimacy," Coleman says. "We're the largest independent retailer and we sell a lot of new releases, yet it was weird for us to see things in the chart when we never understood how they got there."

Sounds has started displaying and using the new RIANZ charts. "We're behind anything that RIANZ does to improve the business," Coleman says, "but if it isn't working, we'll do what we want."

Retailers and labels involved with the new chart have signed a code of conduct, Music Sauce managing director Paul Kennedy notes. "I don't think anybody in the industry would deny that chart hyping has [previously] taken place," he says, "but we're confident the new systems mean that will be a thing of the past."

The charts are released weekly on Wednesday, along with a music DVD chart that Music Sauce compiles from scanned sales data. They are all available online (top50.co.nz). The No. 1 single in the first week of the new charts was "My Band" by D12 (Universal). Guns N' Roses' "Greatest Hits" (Universal) headed the album chart.

LOCAL CONTENT

The launch of the new RIANZ charts followed the debut on state-owned national channel TV2 of a New Zealand version of TOTP. The show carries a chart rundown based on the top 40 singles.

The 30-minute TOTP screens at 6 p.m. each Saturday, replacing the U.K. version. It is licensed from London-based BBC World and produced for TV2 by independent production company Satellite Media.

The New Zealand version will follow the U.K. format closely, says Satellite Media GM Nikki Streater, including performances from the British show linked by a presenter in an Auckland studio in front of a live audience.

The show also features artist interviews and will always carry significant New Zealand content, Streater says. "We're aiming for between two and four performances a week by local artists."

The first show of TOTP's initial 48-week season aired April 17.