The Official Top40 Singles Chart has provided the best overview of music popularity across New Zealand each week for more than 40 years now. However, as the musical landscape continues to evolve, so do the opportunities for a new interpretation of Kiwi music consumption habits.

As a result, Recorded Music NZ is launching the Official Hot40 Singles Chart today. The current Top40 is not going away and will continue to provide the traditional measure of the total sales and stream volume each week.

Meanwhile the new hot chart will reflect the ‘velocity’ of songs as they gain sales, increase streams and airplay, pick up new fans and show all the signs of being the hottest new tunes of the week, says Recorded Music NZ Chart Manager Paul Kennedy.

“The key question the Hot40 Chart seeks to answer is how many more fans are interested in a track this week compared to last week? To stay in this chart, artists will need to keep gaining new fans. A song will need to keep on growing every week, making it very difficult for anything to enjoy long chart runs.”

As a result, the Hot40 will be dynamic, with new releases likely to feature heavily.

The main Hot40 Singles Chart will also be joined by a version exclusive to New Zealand music – the NZ Hot20 – where all the same principles apply but will showcase only the freshest, fastest-moving Kiwi releases.

Winner of the 2017 Vodafone Highest Selling Single Tui Kings said the changes were exactly what was needed to keep people engaged with the charts.

“The new Hot40 and NZ Hot20 Charts will give us local artists another opportunity to be creative in our marketing to keep our tracks popping – and maybe encourage a little bit of friendly competition. I can’t wait to get a track on there!”

The upshot of this new methodology is that the Hot Charts will provide an alternative take on what’s happening on the music scene each week.

The brand new Hot40 Singles Chart will launch Friday 6 July on the Official Chart website www.nztop40.co.nz.