Nobel Peace Price Concert 2009 Westlife2

The UK Singles Downloads Chart is compiled by the

Official Charts Company The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...

(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 main chart contains the Top 200 downloads (which are published in '' UKChartsPlus''), with the top 100 published on the OCC website. The chart only uses sales of ''permanent digital downloads'', that is single-download tracks 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 ...

. Some downloading services offer a monthly fee plan where generally an unlimited number of tracks can be downloaded within a month for a certain price. Tracks downloaded in those instances do not qualify. An album equivalent, the UK Album Downloads Chart, was launched in April 2006.

History

Before the inauguration of the download chart, only sales of physical formats—such as CD,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from 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 Ott ...

—contributed towards a single's position on the UK music charts. From the late 1990s onwards, these sales began to significantly decline. By the start of 2004, they had dropped to their lowest level in over 35 years, with singles needing to sell only 35,000 copies to reach number one. One year later, a limited edition re-release of "

One Night One Night or 1 Night may refer to: Film * ''One Night'' (2002 film), a film produced by Winchester Films * ''One Night'' (2005 film), an Iranian film directed by Niki Karimi * ''One Night'' (2007 film), a film featuring Christian Campbell and ...

" / "

I Got Stung "I Got Stung" is a 1958 song recorded by Elvis Presley and released as a single written by Aaron Schroeder and David Hill and published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc. It was number one in the UK in 1959 and 2005 as a double A-side ...

" by

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

topped the chart with 22,000 copies, making it the lowest selling number-one single at that time. Conversely, the music download market was growing considerably: during the same 2004–05 period, sales of downloads grew by 743%, and overtook physical sales in December 2004. The following year, the UK's online music revenue reached . As a result of this growth, the OCC were commissioned in 2004 to compile a new music chart based solely on the UK's download sales, which was initially sponsored by

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance bar, temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pembe ...

. A "sample" download chart was trialled for 10 weeks, with the first number one being " Bam Thwok" by American rock band

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. After this ten-week period, the UK Official Download Chart was launched on 1 September 2004, with Irish boy band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporar ...

achieving the first official number one. The group topped the chart with a live version of their 1999 single "

Flying Without Wings "Flying Without Wings" is a song by Irish boy band Westlife, released on 18 October 1999 as the third single from their self-titled debut studio album (1999). It is the band's fourth-best-selling single on both paid-for and combined sales in th ...

", a move that UK chart commentator

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

branded a "stunt". Sales of downloaded singles were finally incorporated into the UK Singles Chart on 17 April 2005, initially on the condition that physical copies were available to buy at the same time. In April 2006, the UK Official Download Chart was expanded to include an album chart. The first album to top the chart was ''

This New Day ''This New Day'' is the fifth studio album by English rock band Embrace. It was released on 27 March 2006, being preceded by the release of the single, " Nature's Law", and went straight to number one on the UK Albums Chart. The single and alb ...

'' by English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial ...

band

Embrace Embrace may refer to: * A hug, a form of physical intimacy * Acceptance Music Bands * Embrace (American band), a post-hardcore band from Washington, D.C. * Embrace (English band), a post-Britpop band from West Yorkshire * Embrace (duo), a Dan ...

. By 2007, the UK had become Europe's largest consumer of online music, with almost 78 million tracks being downloaded that year; by 2012, this figure had more than doubled. The single with the longest stay on the Downloads Chart is "

Crazy Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

" by

Gnarls Barkley Gnarls Barkley are an American soul duo, composed of singer-songwriter CeeLo Green and producer Danger Mouse. They released their debut studio album, ''St. Elsewhere'', in 2006. It contained their hit single "Crazy", which peaked at number two ...

, which stayed the top spot for 11 weeks. On the week end 26 December 2009, "

Killing in the Name "Killing in the Name" is a protest song by American rock band Rage Against the Machine, and appears on their 1992 self-titled debut album. It was released as the lead single from the album in November 1992. It features heavy drop-D guitar riff ...

" by

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...

became the fastest-selling download of all time. As of 9 September 2014, "

Happy Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. Sin ...

" by

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

is the most downloaded song in UK music download history. In 2006,

McFly McFly are an English pop rock band formed in London in 2003. The band took their name from the '' Back to the Future'' character Marty McFly. The band consists of Tom Fletcher (lead vocals, guitar, and piano), Danny Jones (lead vocals, har ...

became the first band to have two number one singles with " Star Girl" on both the UK Downloads Chart and the UK Singles Chart at the same time.

Criteria for inclusion

* The track must have a maximum playing time of 15 minutes. * PDDs (Permanent Digital Downloads) must be bought by the retailer at a minimum of 40p per track, or 32p if the record company does not publish a set dealer price. The retailer may sell tracks at a loss at its own discretion.

Most-downloaded by year

References

External links

Official Singles Downloads Chart
at the

The Official UK Top 20 Download Chart
at

MTV UK MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & ...

{{Music of the United Kingdom 2004 establishments in the United Kingdom British record charts

History

Criteria for inclusion

Most-downloaded by year

See also

References

External links