Hit40UK chart drops physical sales

The chart that isn't the only one which counts, the Hit40UK (what used to be the Nescafe Chart) is no longer going to count CD sales or airplay when totting up the chart positions. It's digital downloads all the way from now, they say:

Paul Jackson, the group programme director for Global Radio brands 95.8 Capital FM, the Xfm and Hit Music Network stations and Hit40UK, said: "Downloads have now become the driving force for record sales, as the statistics clearly show.

"It makes complete sense that the UK's most listened-to chart show reflects the changes in how people are listening to music."

Given that only 4% of the data came from physical sales anyway, it's not really that much of a change. And it's interesting that Jackson isn't keen on reflecting the way that people are, nowadays, listening to music on radio stations that aren't nasty, centrally-programmed, tightly-playlisted formats.