The UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart and the UK Independent Album Breakers Chart are
music charts based on UK sales of
singles and
albums released on
independent record labels by musical artists who have never made the UK top 20.
It is compiled weekly by the
Official Charts Company (OCC), and is first published on their official website on Friday evenings. The chart was first launched on 29 June 2009, and, according to Martin Talbot, managing director of the OCC, would have benefited acts such as
Friendly Fires and
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
.
History
The UK Indie Breakers Chart runs alongside the similar
UK Indie Chart.
The UK Indie Chart was created in 1978 by
Cherry Red Records
Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as well ...
founder Iain McNay, and, like the breakers chart, lists only albums and singles released by independent record labels in the UK. Until June 2009, a single was classed as "indie" if it was
shipped by a distribution service that was independent of the four major record companies:
EMI,
Sony Music Entertainment,
Warner Music Group and
Universal Music Group. Following discussion at the 2008
annual general meeting of the
British Phonographic Industry, this definition was altered to include only releases from labels that were at least fifty per cent owned by a record company that was not one of the main four. This prevented major record companies from qualifying for the chart by
outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
the shipping of their singles and albums to smaller distribution services. At the same time, the UK Indie Breakers Chart was also unveiled, with the objective that it would allow acts signed to independent labels to "reach the broader public".
Any single or album released by an independent label can quality for the breakers charts, provided that the artist has never previously had a Top 20 hit in the mainstream charts.
The new indie charts went live on 29 June 2009;
at the time, sales from independent labels contributed towards approximately a fifth of sales of albums and singles in the UK.
The new charts were received positively by McNay, who remarked that they would, once again, "be genuinely independent charts which can help measure the success of, and promote independent records".
Stewart Green, commercial director of the independent record company
Beggars Group also praised the new charts. He stated: "This will provide a fascinating snapshot of those slow-burners that do not achieve instant success but sell consistently well over a period of time."
Allison Schnackenberg of
Southern Records was more critical, remarking that the "fifty per cent or more" rule was "blurring the lines to the point that the word 'independent' will be meaningless to the general public".
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]
See also
* Lists of UK Independent Singles and Albums Breakers Chart number ones
*
* List of UK Independent Singles Breakers Chart number ones of the 2020s
References
External links
Independent Albums Breakers
at the Official Charts Company
Independent Singles Breakers
at the Official Charts Company
{{UK Music Charts
British record charts