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Download upgrade
We're not quite sure how this is going to work, but the all downloads will now count for the singles chart, not merely tracks which have a physical manifestation.
It's going to make the charts more honest, but there's still the hanging issue of the Radiohead Top 20 question: we imagine that the chart company has done some sums to ensure that the release of an album by a top act won't generate such a large number of downloads that the entire thing eclipses everything being released as singles; or maybe they can't guarantee this, and the BBC axed Top of the Pops as a pre-emptive strike against the prospect of Robbie Williams doing six songs in a single programme.
Meanwhile, the arbitrary length of what counts as a single has been boosted from twenty minutes to twenty five, and the allowed number of tracks on a single from three to four. The upper limit of three tracks had been introduced back when bands like Westlife complained about the difficulty of coming up with "so many" songs to fill a single up. Presumably, they've realised that their target market will buy any old socks anyway.
2 comments:
Looking at the download-only charts so far, it doesn't look that Radiohead problem is a real risk - I suppose if you want a whole album you'd download it in one fell swoop and thus contribute to the album chart instead, rather than get eleven tracks one at a time.
Strictly speaking, all the Radiohead albums are only available that way anyhow. But that's not really the point, I suppose.
Muse managed to just about get every single song from their new album into the top 200 on its week of release, but no one's made any more of an impact than that yet.
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