The Official UK Charts Company say they are “pleased” with the way the revamp of the singles chart went this weekend, though a spokesman added that there would be "a certain amount of fluidity" in chart rules in the coming months. In case you’ve been in a locked room in recent days, sales of tracks on official download platforms were added into the calculations for the official singles chart for the first time on Sunday.
Commenting on the revamp, Peter Jamieson of the BPI, who own half the chart, told reporters: "The addition of downloads to the singles chart doubles the market at a stroke. By bringing new people back into the singles market, the addition of downloads by definition makes it more representative."
The Association Of Independent Music were less convinced of the new chart’s success however. For those locked room inhabitants, AIM are concerned that because iTunes dominate the download sector, and because many independent labels are yet to have their music stocked by iTunes, that adding download sales stats into the singles chart this early gives major labels an unfair advantage. The Official Charts Company, who disagree, point out that one more independent label artist was in the Top 40 this week than would have been had it been a retail only chart. However AIM say that two thirds of the independent artists in this week’s Top 75 are positioned lower because of the addition of download stats. A spokesman for AIM told reporters: "The facts speak for themselves”.