The Irish Singles Chart (Irish: Cairt Singil na hÉireann) is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically each day from retailers' EPOS systems. Currently all major record stores and over forty independents submit data for the charts, accounting for over 80% of the market, according to Chart-Track. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by the Irish Recorded Music Association on Friday at noon. Each chart is dated with the "week-ending" date of the previous Thursday (i.e. the day before issue). The singles chart was first published on 1 October 1962, and covered the top ten singles of the previous week by record label shipments.
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Prior to 1992, the Irish singles chart was compiled from trade shipments from the labels to record stores, rather than on consumer sales, and were first broadcast on RTÉ on 1 October 1962. Before this charts had been printed in the Evening Herald newspaper, but are under debate as to whether they are official or not. Currently Pop4 on the Irish speaking channel TG4 lists the charts.
In 1992, the singles chart became based on consumer sales after IFPI and the Irish Recorded Music Association(IRMA) granted a contract to Gallup, a market research company. Gallup installed Epson PX-4 devices in sixty record stores to collect singles sales data. In 1996, Chart-Track was formed as a result of a management buy-out from Gallup. Also in 1996, with the development of technology, EPOS systems were installed in multiple music retail stores. The EPOS systems allowed for the collection of more accurate sales information. Currently, Chart-Track collects data daily from major record stores such as HMV and Tower Records, as well as over forty Independent retailers. In total, data from over four-hundred and ninety stores are collected each week. The singles chart is compiled over seven days and released every Friday at noon by the IRMA, while Midweek Charts are produced daily, but only released to IRMA members.
It has been announced that from 1 July 2006, downloads will be counted in the charts. They will also feature their own chart in addition to being counted for the overall chart. Data will be collected from iTunes, Vodafone, eircom, Sony Connect, Wippit and Bleep.com.[1] Although IRMA currently estimate the size of the download market to amount to only 14% of the total market, this is certain to increase rapidly in line with other music markets. The likely losers are the Irish independent labels who are unlikely to have their full repertoire available to buy on these mostly internationally-run websites in the near future.
First Irish Artist to go straight in at Number One
Artists with the most number one hits1. 21 2. 13 (tie) 3. 12 4. 9 (tie) 5. 8 (tie)
6. 7 (tie) Songs with the most weeks at number one1. 18 weeks 2. 17 weeks 3. 16 weeks
4. 11 weeks (tie)
7. 10 weeks (tie)
9. 9 weeks (tie)
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