Data from streaming services including Spotify and YouTube could soon be used to determine chart placings in the Top 40 as well as sales and downloads, according to a senior BBC radio executive.
Music Week reported that George Ergatoudis, the head of music at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, told the Radio Academy the change could come this summer.
Writing on Twitter, he said that as well as Spotify, "other music streaming services will be included".
A spokeswoman for the Official Charts Company which compiles the Top 40 said: "We've always said we are monitoring the rise of streaming as a form of consumption, but nothing has changed. Streaming is growing fast, so we are looking at it, but we are currently going through the 'how', before we work out the 'when'."
Among the questions that will need to be answered are which streams will be counted, how they will be measured alongside physical sales and how long fans have to listen to a track before it counts on the chart.
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