The UK Album 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 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 Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. The first album to top the download 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

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 ...

. The chart is published in ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'', '' 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 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 an album's position on the

. 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 The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. 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 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

topped the first ever UK Album Downloads Chart with their fifth studio album ''

'', 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

References

External links

Official Album Downloads Chart
at the

{{UK Music Charts 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom British record charts

History

Criteria for inclusion

Most-downloaded by year

See also

References

External links