The UK Official Download Chart is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company on behalf of the music industry. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with the chart being published on a Wednesday afternoon, so as to not to clash with the release of the main UK Singles Chart[1]. For a brief time the Top 10 was aired on BBC Radio 1's Chart Show every Sunday afternoon from 4–7 PM, along with the Top 20 albums and the UK Top 40 singles.
The main chart contains the Top 200 downloads; however, usually only the Top 20 or Top 40 are of main interest. The Top 200 was published only for brief periods in 2006,[2] and from 2010 onwards. The chart only uses sales of permanent digital downloads, that is single-download tracks on non-subscription online music stores. Some downloading services offer a monthly fee plan where generally an unlimited amount of tracks can be downloaded within a month for a certain price. Tracks downloaded in these instances do not qualify[1].
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With legal downloads having been on the increase since the new millennium began, the UK Official Charts Company decided to organise the official UK Download Chart. Its inception was on 26 June 2004.[3] In early January 2005, the week before the 1000th number one single topped the UK Singles Chart, legal downloads took over physical sales for the first time in UK Chart history[4]. This has been the case ever since, with sales throughout early 2005 being very poor and all-time records for lowest sales being set throughout. Therefore, on 17 April 2005, the official UK Singles Chart incorporated legal downloads as well as physical sales in an attempt to boost flagging single sales.
The first official Number One track on the download chart was The Pixies' "Bam Thwok".[3][5][6] The single with the longest stay on the UK Official Download Chart is "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley hanging on to the top spot for eleven weeks. In week commencing 1 December 2008 Leona Lewis with her cover version of "Run" became the second fastest selling download of all time.[7] Lady Gaga's single, "Poker Face" is the most downloaded song in UK Download history.[8]
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