Music video views to be counted in the official chart for the first time as YouTube takes on MTV's mantel

For more than 65 years, the UK singles chart has provided a rundown of the records we listen to.

Now that is about to change. From July 6, the chart will include online views of music videos as the rules are adapted to reflect the going importance of YouTube and other video sites as a means of discovering to new music.

It was YouTube that helped decimate the blockbuster music video by slashing production budgets and undermining the commercial models of music video channels, such as MTV and VH1, but in an ironic twist, data from the streaming service will now be used, alongside new video data from Apple Music and Spotify, by the the Official Charts Company (OCC), and merged into the Top 100.

The move comes after the official chart was expanded to include music downloads in 2005 and tracks streamed online in 2014.

It will now include video views and streaming data in addition to digital downloads and traditional CD and vinyl sales.

The new chart will incorporate both free-to-view and streaming by customers who pay a month subscription.

To reflect the “different in weight” between free video streaming on and subscription views, 100 video views via a subscription service will equate to one single sale, while it will take 600 free videos to record sale.

The move has the backing of the major record labels, who say it the new chart will the most accurate representation yet of the nation’s most popular songs.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of OCC, said the move was a “significant step” and ensures the charts “continues to be the most comprehensive and trust chart in the UK.”

He said: “In the modern era, artists are increasingly multi-faceted creators, with a highly developed visual sense running in parallel with their music.

The addition of video ensures that the Official Singles Chart reflects the creativity of the artist in the broadest way possible – and music fans’ engagement with that vision.”

Derek Allen, a senior vice president Warner Music UK, added:  “It’s always been important that the Official Charts keep pace with an ever evolving and dynamic market, while also retaining their integrity, something which has set the UK charts apart from many of those operating elsewhere around the world.

"These latest changes are just another step down that road.”

Despite the weighting to favour paid-for downloads and video views, there are likely to be concerns that incorporating billions of “free” music and video plays, at the expense of songs people have actively paid to purchase, could make the chart meaningless.

Ed Sheeran, who twice stopped a gig in Cardiff on Friday night to go to the bathroom, is likely to do well from the new ranking system.

OCC figures show he topped the online video streaming chart for 2017 with his single Shape of You, which currently has more than 776 million views on YouTube, while the top ranking female artist was Dua Lipa with her single New Rules.

The late 1970s were regarded as the heyday of the singles chart, with 89 million singles sold in 1979 and top-sellers including Art Garfunkel’s Bright Eyes and I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.

Singles sales plummeted in the 1990s but are now back at record highs, thanks primarily to downloads and the popularity of streaming services.

Video (YouTube) Killed the Radio Star (MTV)

Launched in August 1981, with the Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star, MTV had a huge impact on 1980s pop culture.

It made massive profits and launched a new audience for music on both sides of the Atlantic, but as YouTube became both the MTV and CD shop for teenage music lovers, it was forced to rebrand as MTV Classics in 2016.

Now it offers repeats of shows like Jackass and Daria instead of music videos and peak viewing figures have dropped to less than 100,000 in the UK, down from a global peak 20 years ago of nearer one million.

In contrast, YouTube’s reach is massive and continues to grow.

More than 400 hours of footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and around five billion videos are watched daily on the world's biggest video-sharing platform.

In 2014, the most-searched term on the site was music and music videos top the charts for popularity. 

The clip with the highest number of views is currently the music video for Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. It has more than 5.2billion views.