Dan Rosen says ARIA wants to include YouTube Music in its Singles Chart

With YouTube Music rolling out across the country, ARIA CEO Dan Rosen says the industry association is now reassessing the way the ARIA Charts will count video music streams.

The revamped streaming service from YouTube will include video and music streams side-by-side in its app.

“At the moment, video contributes to the Audio Visual chart, but not to the Singles chart,” Rosen explained.

“But now [with its new streaming service] we’ll work with YouTube. We want to get them into the chart, we just need to make sure it’s done the right way.”

Currently, 5SOS’s ‘Youngblood’ is the most-streamed track on the ARIA Streaming Audio Visual Tracks Chart, with Amy Shark’s ‘I Said Hi’ sitting at #13.

What’s yet to be determined is how regular YouTube plays will be counted compared to YouTube Music streams within its app by ARIA for its various charts that include streaming data.

As Ruuben van den Heuvel, head of music content partnerships (ANZ) explained to TMN, as far as YouTube is concerned, “views on YouTube Music will count towards overall YouTube view count.”

Music video content available on the streaming service includes “official albums and songs, playlists, remixes, hard-to-find music, deep cuts, and more,” van den Heuvel added.

“If it looks and sounds like music it’s there, and we’re constantly ensuring all the music you’re looking for is there.”

“We’re always reassessing [the chart formula],” said Rosen.

“You have to because it’s such a changing environment… You gotta make sure that we’re measuring the right thing, that we’re collecting the right things.

“The ARIA chart has been the one constant for 35 years. Whether it was vinyl to CD to cassette, to cassette to CDs to downloads, now with streaming and vinyl still, and CDs still. And it’s the one place that you can see what’s happening between Spotify and Apple and YouTube launching [its music service].

“It’s certainly a challenging era, but I think the industry’s starting to get a grasp of how streaming’s working. Things are becoming possible again.”

In terms of reconfiguring the formula and considering the way it works for homegrown acts, Rosan believes it’s a combination of talking to international colleagues to see what’s happening around the world and consulting with its members.

“We’ll always got an eye to make sure that we’re doing things that aren’t jeopardising Australian artists as well. But, you know, you’ve got to maintain the integrity of the chart.

“It’s a balancing act. There’s certain things we could do that would just favour Australian artist, but then the chart is not a true reflection of what’s happening.”

Rosen has been using a preview of the YouTube Music app, “playing around with it for a couple of weeks.”  

“I think it’s cool. I like the fact that it’s got video into it. I mean, our number one thing from an ARIA perspective is that I’d love [all streaming services] to be successful. You want a really competitive environment.

“It’s great that the biggest companies on the planet are investing in music. If we can get YouTube as a real contributor to the music business and getting more people paying for the music, that’s a great thing.”

To find out more about YouTube’s new streaming service, read our explainer.