Wikipedia:Record charts/Sourcing guide

Key to archive symbols

Symbol	Explanation of symbol
	All charts on this site are official and properly licensed.
	No problems have been detected with this archive. While using an official source is generally preferred, using this archive as a convenience link is acceptable. Good and Featured class articles should not rely on unlicensed archives as convenience links, and should use official sites and licensed archives where possible.
	While this chart appears to have been archived correctly, there are problems surrounding this archive site that make it questionable. Further use of this archive is discouraged, and people are encouraged to change links to this site to point to other sources.
	This chart has been archived incorrectly or is taken from an impermissible chart. It cannot be used as a source.

Typical sources for record charts and archives, by country

Country	Charts					Archives				Comments
	Albums		Singles
	Sales	Certifications	Sales	Airplay	Certifications	αCharts.us	Chart-Surfer.de	Top40-Charts.com	Hung Medien
Argentina	CAPIF	CAPIF (until 2010)								Direct links to the charts are not available. Site is down as of January 2012 due to hacker attacks.
Australia	ARIA Charts Hung Medien	ARIA (from 1997)	ARIA Charts Hung Medien		ARIA (from 1997)					An archive of individual charts can be found at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/23790 . It isn't searchable, but this is the only archive that preserves position 51-100.
Austria	oe3.ORF.at Hung Medien	IFPI (from 1990)	oe3.ORF.at Hung Medien		IFPI (from 1990)
Belgium (Flanders)	Ultratop	Ultratop (from 2000)	Ultratop		Ultratop (from 2000)					Dutch- and French-speaking sections of Belgium are charted separately.
Belgium (Wallonia)	Ultratop	Ultratop (from 2000)	Ultratop		Ultratop (from 2000)
Brazil	ABPD Billboard (MANUAL ARCHIVE REQUIRED)	ABPD (from 1990)		See Notes Billboard (weekly)	ABPD Download					The album chart is poorly formatted and difficult to navigate. Detailed navigation help is available here. The Hot 100 Airplay and Hot Pop Songs charts from Billboard Brasil magazine are acceptable, but not archived. These charts can be included only by referencing the physical magazine, not the online chart. Crowley Broadcast Analysis charts must be saved using WebCite or another similar service. The remaining charts from Billboard Brasil are from individual Brazilian states, and generally should not be used.
Bulgaria				Nielsen						No valid album charts or singles sales charts are known to exist.
Canada	Billboard	Music Canada	Nielsen	Nielsen	Music Canada					aCharts.us archives Canadian Hot 100 only. Sales for albums and singles are archived at Billboard.
			Billboard
	RPM		RPM							RPM contains information for music from 1964-2000
Croatia	HDU			ARC
Czech Republic	IFPI			IFPI
Denmark	IFPI Hung Medien	IFPI (from 2001) IFPI (from 2011)	IFPI Hung Medien	IFPI	IFPI (from 2007) IFPI (from 2011)					Both IFPI and Hung Medien contain archives back to 2001. Prior to 2001 only known archive is from Billboard Magazine Hits of the World section.
Finland	Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland Hung Medien	IFPI	Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland Hung Medien		IFPI					Search available at ifpi.fi. Click "Albumit - viikko xx/xxxx »" for albums or "Singlet - viikko xx/xxxx »" for singles. There is also a download chart at latauslista.fi, but this should be treated as a component chart: it should be used only when the main chart was not entered.
France	SNEP Hung Medien InfoDisc	SNEP (from 1994) InfoDisc	SNEP Hung Medien	SNEP	SNEP (from 1994) InfoDisc					SNEP charts are found under tab labelled "Les Classements".
Germany	GfK Entertainment Musicline.de	IFPI	GfK Entertainment Musicline.de	Nielsen	IFPI					Only the top five appear on the display, but the search facility returns all positions. Replace "Suchbegriff" with search text, and hit "Jetzt suchen". The Hung Medien sites (swisscharts.com, lescharts.com, mexicancharts.com, etc.) have peculiar behavior regarding the German charts. None of them display the German charts to anonymous users. All of them (except germancharts.com!) will show the German charts on the international summary display to registered users.
Greece	IFPI  Hung Medien	IFPI								Chart archives starting from Jan 2010 on greekcharts.com. The IFPI chart only shows the current week, to see previous weeks and years use archive.org. However this has only been sporadically archived but the chart table does include Best Position which may be helpful for any missing weeks. IFPI also list any certifications given under the Awards column. G=gold, P=platinum 2P=2×platinum etc. Again use archive.org to see previous certifications. Webcitation.org also has a number of cached pages going back to January 2010.
Hungary	MAHASZ	MAHASZ (from 2000)	MAHASZ	MAHASZ						Archived at MAHASZ. The Editors' Choice Top 40 should not be used: this is a critic's list, not a reflection of sales or airplay.
Ireland	IRMA	IRMA (2005-2008)	IRMA							Archived at Chart Track, IrishCharts.ie, and IRMA.
Israel				Media Forest
Italy	FIMI Hung Medien	FIMI	FIMI Hung Medien		FIMI					Archived at FIMI.
Japan	Oricon Billboard	Gold/Platinum (from 2003) Million	Oricon Billboard RIAJ Digital Track Chart	Billboard	Gold/Platinum (from 2003) Million					Detailed navigation help is available due to language difficulties/explanations on what each chart (Oricon/Billboard/RIAJ) are specifically used for, click here.
			Japan Hot 100 Singles
Korea	GAON Chart		GAON Chart		For Billboard: The US Billboard site has all the charts in English, and has an archive of the Top 50 songs each week. Billboard is aiming to have this as the definitive chart for K-Pop in Korea.[1] For Gaon Charts: The chart includes streaming, downloads, purchases of the song as background music, and mobile sales. There is a black bar on top representing the different charts. The first selection: Digital Comprehensive chart (split into combined, domestic, and international charts). Second: Online chart (split into combined, domestic, and international charts). Third: Mobile chart (split into ringback tones and ringtones). Fourth: Album chart (split into combined, domestic, and international charts). The last section is an introduction to the website, which is set up by the Korea Music Content Industry Association, the current music industry association. Please note that "foreign" artists include domestic artists who have released singles in other languages for other markets (for example, a Korean artist releasing a Japanese single). To access the international chart, press the last button of the three at the right on each specific chart. As of the website's new design, it allows any direct links to specific charts (unlike before) However, in order to access previous years, the "current year" parameter in the link must be changed to the desired one. If a non-Korean artist charts only on the "international" chart, it should be noted as such. Previously accepted charts include the Music Industry Association of Korea (the KMCIA predecessor) chart (for album sales prior to 2008) and Hanteo charts. However, Hanteo rankings are problematic as they currently have multiple options of presenting data (from hourly to yearly), and they do not appear to have a "main" chart. Moreover, actual sales data is available for "gold" members only. Hanteo's song chart is currently unavailable.
			K-Pop Hot 100
Mexico	AMPROFON Hung Medien	AMPROFON (from 1999)		Mexican Airplay (MANUAL ARCHIVE REQUIRED)						Both current charts need to be manually archived. NOTE: The certifications posted on the Mexican Airplay chart are from the RIAA, not AMPROFON.
Netherlands	GfK	NVPI (until 2006) IFPI	GfK Dutch Single Top 100		NVPI (until 2006) IFPI					Weekly archive incorporated directly into charts.
			Dutch Top 40
New Zealand	RIANZ Hung Medien	RIANZ (from 2011) RIANZ (1999–2011) RadioScope archive (2007-05-20 to 2011-08-21) Adabow has access to a book which lists most peak chart positions and certifications up to 2006	RIANZ Hung Medien	RIANZ (replace XXXX in URL with chart number 1566–1797)	RIANZ (from 2011) RIANZ (1999–2011) RadioScope archive (2007-05-20 to 2011-07-24) Adabow has access to a book which lists most peak chart positions and certifications up to 2006					To link to an individual chart (January 2003 onward), select from the "Chart Archive" in the top right corner. You will be taken to a new URL which is a direct link. For old charts (prior to November 2011), use the format http://rianz.org.nz/rianz/oldchart.asp?chartNum=XXXX&chartKind=Y with XXXX as a chart number and Y as the kind of chart (S=singles, A=albums, D=DVDs, C=compilations, H=heatseekers [up to 2007-05-21]/ radio airplay [2007-05-28 to 2011-10-31])
Norway	VG-lista IFPI Hung Medien	IFPI (from 1993 to date)	VG-lista IFPI Hung Medien	IFPI	IFPI (from 1993 to date)					The complete archive (except Midprice and Airplay chart) is on http://lista.vg.no/
Poland	OLiS	ZPAV – Gold ZPAV – Platinum ZPAV – Diamond		Airplay Top 20 (archive)
Portugal	AFP Hung Medien	AFP 1 (weekly) AFP 2 (from 2007)
Romania				Media Forest
Russia		2m-online
Slovakia				IFPI
Spain	PROMUSICAE Hung Medien		PROMUSICAE Hung Medien		Prior to Jan 12, 2009, the charts published at Promusicae, www.spanishcharts.com, and acharts.us were identical, and were all a physical sales chart. After that date, Promusicae began to publish a more comprehensive chart, which included downloads, but www.spanishcharts.com and acharts.us continued to publish only the physical chart. This means that for songs which charted prior to Jan 12, 2009, either source can be used. After Jan 12, 2009, if a song charted on both, then the Promusicae chart should be used. Spanishcharts.com/acharts.us should be used only for charting information after Jan 12, 2009, if the song did not chart on Promusicae. Links to individual charts on Promusicae can be made by using the search function, and then linking to the resulting PDF file. On July 5, 2009, Spanishcharts.com began publishing the more comprehensive chart as well including the complete archive back to January 2009.
Sweden	IFPI Hung Medien	IFPI	IFPI Hung Medien		IFPI					Direct linking to Sverigetopplistan charts is not possible because of Javascript. Instead, one has to insert the artist's or song's name into the search box and click "Sök", this shows all of the artist's albums and singles with their chart positions.
Switzerland	Hung Medien	Hung Medien (from 1989)	Hung Medien	Hung Medien	Hung Medien (from 1989)					Weekly archive built into main list.
United Kingdom	OCC	BPI	OCC OCC archive		BPI					Archived at OCC artist chart history. Positions below 75 used be found at Chart Stats, but they have ceased publication of charts after legal action by the OCC. Interesting commentary on older albums is located at the OCC chart history.
United States	Billboard	RIAA	Billboard	Billboard	RIAA					Archived at Allmusic. Sometimes Allmusic has chart positions for releases that can't be found on Billboard and vice-versa. This is particularly noticeable when looking for positions in specific genre charts like Adult Contemporary or Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Books published by Joel Whitburn cover many of the major Billboard genre-specific charts.
Country	Charts					Archives				Comments
	Albums		Singles
	Sales	Certifications	Sales	Airplay	Certifications	αCharts.us	Chart-Surfer.de	Top40-Charts.com	Hung Medien

Nielsen SoundScan International

Many countries have a digital songs chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan International and published in Billboard Magazine in the Hits of the World page.

Certification levels

Note: current certification levels are available at http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/international-award-levels.pdf