The Gaon Chart is a national record chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 of South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. It is complied by the Korea Music Content Industry Association and sponsored by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism; with an aim to create a national chart for Korea similar to the Billboard charts

Billboard charts

The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

 and Oricon charts

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

. It started tracking sales since the beginning of 2010 and launched in February the same year.

It originally started in 2009 for monthly top single sales, it has expanded to contain weekly single and album sales. The charts are released each Friday.

In February 2011, it published information on both online and offline albums sales of 2010, including a detailed breakdown of online chart data and was the first time that offline album sales was released since 2008 when the Music Industry Association of Korea stopped compiling data.

Format

There are two primary charts: Gaon Album Chart and Gaon Single Chart. The charts lists domestic artists' sales, international artists' sales and a combined overall sales in weekly, monthly and year-end format.

The Gaon Album Chart ranks physical album sales, including mini-albums. It is complied from offline data provided by record labels and distributors: LOEN Entertainment

LOEN Entertainment

LOEN Entertainment , formerly Seoul Records , is a South Korean record label which distributes some of its bigger compatriots.-About the Company:...

, Mnet Media

Mnet Media

Mnet Media is a South Korean entertainment company under the label CJ Group, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It produces, broadcasts, distributes and provides variety of music and entertainment. Once the home to top-selling groups such as Lee Hyori and SG Wannabe...

, SM Entertainment

SM Entertainment

S.M. Entertainment is an independent Korean record label, talent agency, producer, and publisher of pop music, founded by Lee Soo-man in South Korea...

, Sony Music Korea

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

, Universal Music Korea

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

, and Warner Music Korea

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

.

The Gaon Single Chart ranks best-selling non-physical, digital music sales listed as streaming content, downloads, background music, ringtones, karaoke and a combine overall singles charts, but excludes radio airplay and different versions of a song are listed as separate entries. It is complied from online data provided by web-based music providers: Bugs, Dosirak, Melon, Mnet and Soribada.

External links

• Gaon Chart - Official Website