The UK Album Downloads Chart is compiled by the
Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the
music industry
The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...
. Since July 2015, the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday.
The chart was introduced in April 2006 to coincide with the OCC's decision to include sales of album downloads in the
UK Albums Chart.
The first album to top the download chart was ''
This New Day'' by
Embrace.
The chart is published in ''
Music Week'', ''
UKChartsPlus'' and on the OCC's official website, with the former featuring the Top 75 downloads and the top 100 in the latter two. The chart only uses sales of ''permanent digital downloads'', that is album-downloads on non-subscription
online music stores
A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings without ...
.
History
Before the inauguration of the download chart, only sales of physical formats—such as
CD,
vinyl and
cassette tape
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...
—contributed towards an album's position on the
UK Albums Chart. In 2004, in response to falling physical sales of
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
, a
downloads-only singles chart was introduced by the Official Charts Company (OCC); the following year, downloads were implemented into the
UK Singles Chart.
In the first three months of 2006, more than 825,000 albums were legally downloaded, almost half of the entire total downloaded in 2005.
In response, a digital albums chart was launched in April 2006, alongside the OCC's decision to include downloads in the regular chart.
On 9 April 2006, English
alternative rock band
Embrace topped the first ever UK Album Downloads Chart with their fifth studio album ''
This New Day'', which sold around 1,200 digital copies.
Criteria for inclusion
* The album must be more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £3.75.
* An Album Bundle without a physical component is eligible to appear in its own right in the Official Album Downloads Chart from release. Once again, this is only if all formats meet the chart rules.
Most-downloaded by year
See also
*
Lists of UK Album Downloads Chart number ones
*
UK Albums Chart
*
UK Singles Downloads Chart
References
External links
Official Album Downloads Chartat the
Official Charts Company
{{UK Music Charts
2006 establishments in the United Kingdom
British record charts