Music Sites Announce Real-Time Chart Freezing Times

Real-time music charts will be going through big changes this week.

The Gaon Chart Policy Committee, made up of the six music service providers Naver Music, Bugs, Melon, Soribada, Mnet.com, and Genie, revealed on July 9, “We discussed improvements for the problems of real-time music charts, which were brought up again recently due to controversy over digital chart manipulation. As a result, we decided to implement a new real-time chart operation plan starting on July 11.”

The goal of this change is to block attempts of digital chart manipulation late at night when the number of users significantly decreases. There will be “chart freezing” from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. KST, meaning that real-time charts will not operate during this time frame.

The real-time charts will be updated at 1 a.m., and then the next update will be at 7 a.m. Data from this time frame will still count towards daily, monthly, and yearly charts.

Choi Kwang Ho, the secretary-general of the Korea Music Content Association which runs Gaon Chart, commented, “Through this policy improvement, we will block the source of late-night digital chart manipulation that aims for the ‘bandwagon effect’ in the morning when the number of users increases significantly. Through this, we will promote a more credible music chart and improve to contribute increased credibility within the industry.”

The new changes will begin on July 11 at 1 a.m. KST.

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