Chart to Chart

The Official Charts Company and Record Store Day have teamed up to create a new chart representing album sales throughout the UK’s indie record shops.

The Official Record Store Chart will based purely on physical sales in stores participating in Record Store Day across the UK, including London’s Rough Trade, Stockton’s Sound It Out and Jumbo in Leeds.

The first chart is set to debut today (Friday 20 April) on the OCC website. In keeping with the independent nature of Record Store day, there will also be a good old-fashioned countdown on Steve Lamaq’s BBC 6Music show. Why don’t you record it on a hissing cassette tape and try to cut out the sound of the radio DJ babbling over the beginning to really get into the spirit of a pop chart countdown? But remember- home taping is killing music.

There are some big hitters showing up in the top five so far, with the biggest sellers as follows:

1. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
2. Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
3. Adele – 21
4. Bruce Springsteen – Wrecking Ball
5. Black Keys – El Camino

Just to round everything off with some encouraging pro-Record Day stats, the OCC has revealed that independent retailers accounted for 4.4% of more than 2.5m physical albums sold across the UK in 2011 and were responsible for an impressive if unsurprising 95.8% of all vinyl albums sold in stores.

As previously reported, Record Store Day will take place this Saturday (April 21). To find out more, go to their website.

In related chart news, rock weekly Kerrang! has announced an official multi-platform ‘Rock’ chart that will be compiled by the OCC. Broadcast on TV and Radio from 10am every Saturday from April 14, the Official Kerrang! Rock Chart will go out through Kerrang! TV, Sky 368 and Virgin 342.

Director of Programming at Box TV and Kerrang! TV Dave Young said: “The Official Kerrang! Rock Chart cements [our] position as the UK’s bible for rock music, at last giving both rock fanatics and the music industry a long-missing essential barometer of what’s hot on the scene."