First official SA radio and digital music streaming chart platform, Tosac launches

The Official South African Music Charts (Tosac) will kick off with a focus on ‘singles’ in the digital music streaming space, the chart will celebrate the popularity and success of the music being enjoyed from diverse artists by music fans across the country.

To ensure accuracy and that the charts represent the broad South African digital music spectrum, Tosac will aggregate data from three digital streaming platforms popularly used by local audiences: Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer.

Says Sean Watson, the Chairperson of Risa: “We are incredibly excited to be launching such a pioneering platform for the South African music industry and audiences, across different genres. This represents a significant milestone and a much-needed step up to aligning with popular forms of music consumption for the local music industry.

Added Nhlanhla Sibisi, the CEO of Risa: “We have a robust music industry in our country, and our people have a natural thirst for music. We have also seen an undeniable shift in how people consume music in the past few years, with more and more audiences making use of streaming services than before. We are thus excited to put in place an offering that not only recognises that but is set to help drive the growth of our industry.”

What you can expect on the charts:

‘Weekly TOP 200 Tracks’ which takes into account all tracks streamed in South Africa, including both local and international music; and ‘Weekly TOP 100 Local ZA Tracks’ which only includes tracks wherein at least one of the credited artists is from South Africa.

Sibisi explains: “We understand the competitive nature of the digital streaming space and that consumers are spoiled for choice with access to local and international music charts as well as digital streaming apps.”

“The launch of The Official South African Music Charts is a great milestone for music in South Africa and for the development of the industry across the continent. The charts will provide music fans, artists and record labels with a window into music streaming in one of the world’s most vibrant and dynamic markets. Ifpi (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) would like to congratulate its national member organisation Risa, the company members and the contributing streaming platforms for this important achievement,” said Frances Moore, CEO of IFPI.

Mzansi, it’s time to take our love for music to the next level with South Africa’s FIRST radio and digital music streaming charts, The Official SA Charts. Will you be a part of the movement? #voiceofthecharts pic.twitter.com/xb8AcDXXdS

— The Official SA Charts (@OfficialSAChart) September 1, 2021

How the charts will be aggregated:

• Chart week will be from Friday to Thursday.
• Only digital streaming numbers are taken into account.
• The number of streams shown in the charts is always weighted, so that subscription streams have more relevance than ad-funded streams.
• Currently, no track exclusion policy or accelerated decline method is being applied.

Different versions of a track are aggregated to their corresponding original track, i.e.

• Radio Edits
• Same song with additional featuring artists
• DJs remixes, as long as the original artist is credited
• Different language/country versions

Album covers are not aggregated to the original track.

How to access our first official charts:

Tosac will go live at 12pm on 2 September 2021 and guests can visit the official website www.theofficialsacharts.co.za which will serve as the central platform hosting all Tosac charts and related content.

Our intention is to provide all South African music enthusiasts and general consumers with a platform that they can ‘own’ and one that reflects their own relationship with local and international music and their consumption patterns, irrespective of their taste in music. We also plan to consistently develop Tosac platform and tailor it to accommodate our constantly changing consumer needs,” concludes Sibisi.