Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report in July 1987. From June 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association, which had been using the top 50 portion of the report under licence since mid-1983, chose to produce their own listing as the ARIA Charts.
Before the Kent Report, Go-Set magazine published weekly Top 40 Singles from 1966, and albums chart from 1970 until the magazine's demise in August 1974.
David Kent later published Australian charts from 1940 to 1973 in a retrospective fashion, using state by state chart data obtained from various Australian radio stations.
Background
Kent had spent a number of years previously working in the music industry at both EMI and Phonogram records and had developed the report initially as a hobby. The Kent Music Report was first released on a commercial drive basis in July 1974 and was offered for subscription.The report data was initially based solely on radio station charts from around the country, which were then amalgamated using a points based ranking system that Kent had developed. These radio station charts were compiled primarily using data collected from local record stores and, as such, were based primarily on retail sales.
In 1976, as funding from subscriptions grew, Kent himself started collecting sales data from retail stores to supplement the radio station charts. His operation grew and staff were employed to assist with research. Within a year or so, the major record companies started using the Report for their own marketing programs and it had established itself as the leading national chart publication.
From 1982, retail sales data collected by Kent and his staff were used exclusively and radio station charts were dropped from the primary tabulations. Some radio station chart data was used as supplementary information, however.
At about the same time, the Australian Recording Industry Association was established by the major record companies, being EMI, Festival Records, CBS, RCA, WEA and Polygram. From mid-1983 until early June 1988, ARIA had a licensing arrangement with Kent to use the top 50 portion of the Report under their own banner. In 1988, the arrangement with ARIA ended, and the ARIA Charts were produced in-house by the Association.
On 4 January 1999, the AMR charts ceased publishing, leaving the ARIA Charts as the only nationally recognised chart publication.