At one time there was simply the  hit parade based on sales of vinyl records, collated into a chart by Radio Luxembourg and later Radio 1. Then came the download chart as technology and subsequent buying habits metamorphosised from buying physical vinyl records and CDs to “invisible” digital downloads. Now the latest barometer of the nation’s musical tastes is the Top 100 songs streamed by services such as Spotify and We7 – The Official Streaming Chart will launch next Monday, promoted with the USP of being the first Chart ever to rank audio streams from both advertising funded and subscription services in the UK.

Ed Sheeran so far is the most-streamed artist of 2012, followed by Lana Del Ray in second place and David Guetta in third. Rihanna is the fourth most-streamed artist, with Coldplay in fifth. Surprisingly the “Download Queen”, Adele does not figure in the Top 10. The Official Streaming Chart is compiled with information from services including Spotify, We7, Napster, Deezer, Zune and ChartsNow. It will be published every week in music industry trade publication, Music Week, and online at www.officialcharts.com.

It’s all a far cry from the the Official Single Chart, which will mark its 60th anniversary in November. When I was a lad in the 1970s, the release of the weekly Radio 1 Chart on a Tuesday lunchtime was the highlight of the week. In those days, the vinyl record sales returns from the designated record shops from the previous week, would be processed by phone and hand on a Monday on behalf of Radio 1 by the British Market Research Bureau ( BRMB ). In the 1970s the new chart was unveiled on Radio 1 by Johnnie Walker ( and later Paul Burnett ) on a Tuesday lunchtime at 12-45pm after Newsbeat. It was a big deal in those days and for those that missed it, it was repeated on the Breakfast Show the following morning, when Noel Edmonds ( and later Dave Lee Travis / DLT ) ran down the new Top 30, playing the highest entries and highest climbers and the No1.

There was a further rundown of the Top 30 at the start of Top of the Pops on BBC1 on a Thursday evening at 7-30pm. However the chart climax was always at 6pm on a Sunday on Radio 1 and Radio 2, with the Top 20 Chart Rundown. The combined audience was huge for the chart show presented by Tom Browne ( he of the silky, smooth James Mason-esque dulcet tones ), who somehow crammed all twenty songs into an hour. Originally the show ran for three hours as “Solid Gold Sixty” when it was launched in 1972. It later expanded to the Top 40 and a two hour show, under Tom Browne’s successor, Simon Bates who took over the helm in 1978. As a footnote, Tom Browne was not a Disc Jockey at all, but a trained actor. He was selected as presenter of the most listened to programme on Radio 1 in the 1970s, because of his excellent vocal delivery and ability to read a script with total slickness!!

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