Overview
Serenade Smart Formats are chart-accredited in Australia and tracked by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), the peak trade body representing Australia's recorded music industry.
ARIA is the primary reference point for any rules. Where anything below is unclear for your release, contact ARIA directly or reach out to Serenade, we're happy to guide you through it.
Contacts
Serenade — anything about your products, formats, artwork, manufacturing, or general questions: support@serenade.co
ARIA — chart questions and submissions: charts.mail@aria.com.au
ARIA Release Survey Form — this is where you submit both UPCs and products to be registered for ARIA chart sales: aria.com.au/charts/release-survey-form
Eligible Music Releases
Albums and EPs can be made chart eligible as Smart Formats.
Eligible Smart Formats
ALL Serenade Smart Formats apart from clothing tags are chart-approved in Australia as formats in their own right, meaning they can be sold as standalone products without needing to bundle.
Stickers can be standalone products if used on posters (150 GSM paperweight or lower), or postcards.
Other formats beyond these may be eligible case by case — please ask us if you have any ideas or contact ARIA directly.
Registering and Approving Smart Formats
It is the responsibility of the artist team or label to register and approve their Smart Formats with ARIA.
You must:
Create a unique UPC for the Smart Format.
Submit the UPC and register the product through the ARIA Release Survey Form.
Approve the Smart Format with ARIA
Unlike the UK, where UPC registration (Kantar) and format approval (OCC) go through separate contacts, ARIA handles both product and UPC registration together through the one survey form.
Approval Factors
ARIA may ask the types of questions below when approving a Smart Format:
An image or mockup of the item and design
The price you'll be selling it at
Where you're selling it (D2C store, merch stand, live shows, etc.)
Details of how you'll be describing the item when selling it
Details of any bonus content, and when it'll be added
Pricing
Please contact ARIA or review the ARIA Charts Code of Practice for updated guidance on pricing of music formats
Chart Sales
For Smart Format sales, the sale counts at digital redemption. This means the chart sale is counted when an item has been tapped with a mobile phone and accessed by the fan — it is not counted at the point of sale.
Serenade is accountable for logging and sending all sales/redemption data to ARIA against the UPC registered and provided by the artist team/label.
Pre-orders: Smart Formats can be sold on pre-order, and all redemptions during release week count toward week-one chart numbers, just like traditional formats.
Chart Accreditation and Bonus Content
All Smart Formats can include digital bonus content as well as the Album/EP.
Bonus content must relate to the album and be approved before it's added to the digital page.
To give you an idea of what (likely) is and (definitely) isn't eligible, refer to the table below.
Eligible | Not Eligible |
Voice notes relating to the album/song | Access to a listening party or Zoom call with the artist |
Original artwork, liner notes, lyric sheets | Personalised message, video or text from the artist |
Inner sleeve photos, tour photos | Meet & greet or ticket to an upcoming show (incl. lifetime tickets) |
Studio/BTS footage, demos, music videos for tracks on the album, live performances of album tracks | Personalised performance or poem |
Song download, video outtakes | Exclusive merchandise or discount code |
Live/acoustic recordings, album booklet, camera roll pictures | Competition/prize draw for an experience or content |
A good rule of thumb is: if this piece of content helps tell a deeper story about the music and doesn't have a clear market value, it's likely to be eligible.
Please note: all bonus content must be directly related to the album and made available on or around the album release date. Final decisions and all bonus content must be reviewed and approved prior to upload.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell more than one Smart Format for the same release?
If you want to sell multiple Smart Formats for one release/campaign and keep them all chart eligible, please contact Serenade to discuss.
Can you have differently designed products for the same campaign?
Each specific Smart Format per campaign must only have one design.
Do I need to register separately with ARIA if my product's already approved by the OCC?
Yes. ARIA requires its own registration via the Release Survey Form, with its own UPC submission, even if the format is already OCC-approved.