ARIA’s Annabelle Herd Discusses Sweeping New Chart Updates

More exposure for Australian artists. More movement.

Those were the main goals behind ARIA’s sweeping changes to its main, weekly charts which, from September 1st, will heavily focus on new releases.

From that date, the ARIA Singles and Albums Charts will exclude titles released more than two years ago, for what is arguably the biggest change to the official tallies since the introduction of weighted streaming data, the metric shift from physical sales to consumption.

An argument could be made that this latest round of changes, which also apply to the ARIA Australian artist charts, is the most significant overhaul since the ARIA Charts launched back in 1983.

With the updates, catalogue will be listed in a separate home, the ARIA On Replay Charts, which will present the most popular titles released more than two years ago. Also, a new rule for older records that fly following an unexpected viral moment. 

Several hours after those changes were presented to the public, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd took the industry and media for a deeper dive into those changes.

“I wouldn’t say they were broken,” she said of the ARIA’s current suite of charts. “But it’s fair to say there’s been chatter and people expressing their views for a number of years, certainly for as long as I’ve been in this role, that the charts are stagnant, particularly the albums charts.”

Alongside those tweaks, a special “re-entry” provision for those hits that find new legs from a sync or a viral moment.

For the next “Running Up That Hill” to meet the criteria, the recording must be absent from the top 100 for at least 10 years, the label needs to log a request, and the cut must generate enough activity to crack the top 30. If it ticks those boxes, its second chart life will be capped at 10 weeks.

The changes are “simple, and simple is good a lot of the time,” and should go some way to addressing Australian artists’ “visibility” problem, Herd told a gathering at Sydney’s Ace Hotel.

Nothing was simple about the modelling, which came out of a review that began 12 months ago, and was led by ARIA’s charts manager Ian Wallace.

ARIA studied the formulas that are used by charts compilers in New Zealand, the UK, and US, and liaised with the IFPI.

The result, new surveys that are compatible with international practices, says Herd, and done so with “the absolute best intent to get Australian artist the best deal from the charts.”

Annabelle Herd

She continues, “it will open up space in all the charts for new music and new Australian music. What we think we we’re doing is giving more information to artists, to industry and people who are listening to new music and older music.”

On the flip side, Vance Joy’s “Riptide” and other golden oldies will be swept away from the main charts.

The decision to separate catalog from fresh cuts was not been made lightly, explains Herd, and comes on the heels of another lacklustre outing for homegrown acts on the year-end ARIA Charts.

No Australian recording appears on the current ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart, while the albums tally is a rare bounty for local artists, who account for five titles including the top two.

After gauging feedback on the overhaul, “we can always consider making more changes down the track,” Herd admits.

So far, so good. After the ARIA social channels pushed out the news early Tuesday, June 24th, the music community has been largely supportive.

The decision to implement the changes was made by the ARIA board in consultation with the ARIA chart committee.

The bottom line, reckons Herd, is an upgrade, a better marketing tool for artists and the wider music community.