The aim of the ARIA Charts is to reflect and inform consumer choice in a dynamic way. All but one of the ARIA charts are based on retail recorded music sales within Australia from a broad sample of music retailers across the country. The exception is the ARIA Club Chart, which is based on reports by working DJs across Australia. None of the ARIA Charts are based on or contain radio airplay information.
ARIA membership is not a prerequisite for the inclusion of specific releases in the ARIA charts, but products must meet the various eligibility rules.
The following is an overview of how the ARIA Charts are prepared:
- Record Suppliers advise ARIA of product released, and the items they wish to be surveyed on particular charts (eg National singles chart, or Classical chart). They also advise ARIA of any particular promotional activity (eg in-store/promotional appearances by an artist) that might be happening in a specific store or group of stores. Record Suppliers also advise ARIA of any product that is issued with multiple catalogue numbers so that, where appropriate, the sales for those products can be combined for chart calculation purposes (eg standard version and limited edition tour release).
- ARIA receives electronic file submissions from participating retailers (Information Providers) covering the chart week. Click here to access a list of participating retailers.
- Multiple sales (more than three copies of a title purchases by a single customer at any one time) are ineligible for inclusion in the ARIA Charts.
- ARIA performs diagnostic tests on the data, to isolate any anomalies or corrupted data, check that abnormal sales patterns that are observed in relation to a single retailer or series of retailers can be explained (eg resulting from an in store appearance), and that significant sellers have not been omitted from survey. Where necessary, we contact the relevant retail outlet or record supplier for further information, clarification or supply of data as the case may be.
- If an abnormal pattern of sales within a store’s file submission cannot be adequately explained, all the sales data for that particular outlet will be discarded and not included in the calculation for that week.
- ARIA undertakes a weighting process on the total recorded music sales data. The weighting process seeks to represent, as closely as possible, the total Australian retail sales for each product each week. This weighting process is based on the wholesale sales shipments by major record companies to all music retailers in Australia. Separate weighting tables are produced for albums and singles. Weighting factors are adjusted from week to week to reflect the sample size of each given week.
- If a file contains sales for particular products which were the subject of specific promotional activity (eg in store appearance) in that store during that week, the sales relating to that particular activity are flagged to ensure they are not ‘weighted’ during the chart calculation process.
This is an overview of the chart preparation procedure only. Full details on the procedure are set out in the Code of Practice for ARIA Charts.
