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The UK Official Download Chart is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company on behalf of the music industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being published on a Wednesday afternoon, so as to not to clash with the release of the main UK Singles Chart. For a brief time the Top 10 was aired on BBC Radio 1's Chart Show every Sunday afternoon from 4–7 PM, along with the Top 20 albums and the UK Top 40 singles.
The main chart contains the Top 40 downloads; however, usually only the Top 20 are of main interest. For periods in 2006, a Top 200 was published.[1] The chart only uses sales of permanent digital downloads, that is single-download tracks on non-subscription online music stores. Some downloading services offer a monthly fee plan where generally an unlimited amount of tracks can be downloaded within a month for a certain price. Tracks downloaded in these instances do not qualify.
[edit] History
With legal downloads having been on the increase since the new millennium began, the UK Official Charts Company decided to organise the official UK Download Chart. Its inception was on 26 June 2004.[2] In early January 2005, the week before the 1000th number one single topped the UK Singles Chart, legal downloads took over physical sales for the first time in UK Chart history. This has been the case ever since, with sales throughout early 2005 being very poor and all-time records for lowest sales being set throughout.[citation needed] Therefore, on 17 April 2005, the official UK Singles Chart incorporated legal downloads as well as physical sales in an attempt to boost flagging single sales.
The first official Number One track on the download chart was The Pixies' "Bam Thwok".[2][3][4] The single with the longest stay on the UK Official Download Chart is "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley hanging on to the top spot for eleven weeks. In week commencing 1 December 2008 Leona Lewis with her cover version of "Run" became the second fastest selling download of all time.[5]
[edit] Criteria for inclusion
- The track must have a maximum playing time of 10 minutes.
- PDDs (Permanent Digital Downloads) must be being sold for a minimum price of 40p per track.
[edit] References
- ^ Zywietz, Tobias (2007). Chartwatch 2006 chart booklet. Ilminster: Chartwatch. p. 3. ISBN ISSN 0262-9577.
- ^ a b "Download Top 20". Music Week (London: CMP) (26 June 2004).
- ^ Zywietz, Tobias (2005). Chartwatch 2004 chart booklet. Ilminster: Chartwatch. p. 47. ISBN ISSN 0262-9577.
- ^ Miles, Stuart (2004-06-28). "Official downloads chart to be launched in UK". Pocket-lint. http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/377/1401/view.phtml. Retrieved on 2009-03-20.
- ^ Alan Jones (2008-12-08). "Leona blazes to singles number one". Music Week. http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=22&storycode=1036408&c=1. Retrieved on 2008-12-10. : Leona Lewis’s ninth Top 75 entry, "Run", instantly provides her third number one, blistering to the summit on first week sales of 131,593. The Snow Patrol cover doesn’t quite match the record for the highest weekly download sale of all – a tally of 139,629 set by her own debut single "A Moment Like This" in December 2006. Her follow-up to that hit, "Bleeding Love", also managed a fine first week download sale of 106,028.
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