UK Official Download Chart
The UK Official Download Chart is compiled by the Official UK Charts Company on behalf of the music industry. The chart week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday, with the chart being compiled on a Wednesday afternoon, however the chart is aired initially on Radio 1's Chart Show, every Sunday afternoon from 4-7pm along with the Top 20 albums and the UK Top 40 singles. Only the Top 10 downloads are aired on the show.
The main chart contains the Top 40 downloads, however usually only the Top 20 are of main interest. The chart only uses sales of single download tracks on non-subscription services. 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 as only single track downloads are eligible for the charts. As of March 16 2005 10 different tracks have topped the download chart.
History
With legal downloads having been on the increase since the new millennium began, the UK Official Charts Company decided to organised the official UK Download Chart. Its inception was on September 1 2004.
In early January 2005, the week before the 1000th #1 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 2005 being very poor and all-time records for lowest sales being set throughout. Therefore, on April 17 2005 the official UK Singles Chart will incorporate legal downloads as well as physical sales in an attempt to boost flagging single sales.
Criteria For Inclusion The track must have a maximum playing time of 10 minutes. PDD's (Permenant Digital Downloads) must be being sold for a minimum price of 40p per track
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