The Truth Behind The Kanye Chart Glitch

The remarkable chart retraction from ARIA this week was due to a bulk third party purchase of Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey's The Great Country Songbook, which was deemed to be in breach of the AIRA Charts Codes Of Practice.

On Saturday ARIA announced that The Great Country Songbook, released through Sony Music Entertainment, had pipped Kanye West's widely-tipped Yeezus, released through Universal Music Group, to the top of the ARIA Albums Chart. The Australian duo's reign at number one lasted only until Monday afternoon when ARIA re-issued the chart, with Yeezus at number one.

Since then industry sources and public debates have been awash with conspiracy theories about the amendment, and today ARIA have clarified that the miscalculation was down to a bulk order from a third party which had been incorrectly identified at some point during the collation process.

ARIA's General Manager Lynne Small said that the issues were pointed out and correct information sought “with the help and co-operation of label members and relevant chart information providers.”

It is not clear which label – or labels – was involved in ARIA's clarifications.

“The error occurred as a relatively small number of sales units were incorrectly classified as chart eligible,” Small said. “There is no question that the sales were actual sales (not label promo), however we subsequently discovered that a number had been purchased by a third party for key clients. While these are obviously sales, under ARIA's chart rules such bulk purchases are not eligible to be included in the weekly chart calculation.

“Once we became aware of this reporting error, and that it impacted chart positions, we moved to recalculate and republish the relevant chart.”

Under ARIA's 2006 Code Of Practice multiple sales, that is the “purchase of three or more units of the same Product by a single purchaser at any one time”, are unable to be counted in the chart. It was this point that prompted the recalculation.

Other retail exclusions include “sales by artists or fan clubs or through web-sites owned or operated by artists, record companies or fan clubs” and “enhanced value” sales, which bundles promotional offers or customer focused incentives that are more than a “nominal value”.

The news hasn't dampened the spirits of Cassar-Daley and Harvey though. Cassar Daley posted today, “Apparently my mate Adam and I should be disappointed about being pushed out of #1 spot by Kanye due to a 'chart recalculation'. Far from the truth, we're still celebrating! For two artists who are still selling albums, successfully touring and still playing major festivals after 20 years we're stoked at how The Great Country Songbook has debuted. Thanks to our great fans for buying this album, see you on the road. Now for another beer, cheers Kanye!”

Harvey added, “Bit of confusion over the ARIA Chart. I'm really proud to be number two. And a huge thanks to everyone who bought a copy of the new album.”