Despite concerns by key players in the independent sector, the main British music chart yesterday combined data from both physical CD and download sales for the first time. The addition of sales figures for tracks sold via the legal download platforms did help certain artists improve their overall performance, although it did not alter the top two positions – Tony Christie featuring Peter Kay remained at number one for the fifth week, while the highest new entry, Razorlight's ‘Somewhere Else’, was in second place in the retail-only chart as well as the combined chart.
The latest Elvis Presley re-release, ‘The Wonder of You’, was affected by the revamp however. It was at third place in the retail-only chart, but slipped down to number four once you added download sales. In the combined chart Ciara featuring Missy Elliott with ‘1 2 Step’ was at number three.
Other artists who benefited from the chart revamp were Stereophonics and Basement Jaxx, who were, respectively, 8 and 18 positions higher in the combined chart than in the retail-countdown. Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz were a massive 175 places higher in the combined chart than the retail-only chart, though that was thanks mainly to some clever marketing – their latest track ‘Feel Good Inc’ had a very limited physical release, meaning the vast majority of their fans downloaded the track.
Some artists, of course, lost out through the revamp. Kings of Leon, Cabin Crew and Shapeshifters would all have been in this week’s UK Top 40 but for the addition of download sales data.
The independent sector is yet to comment on the new combined singles chart. Last week they called for the revamp to be postponed over concerns that not enough independent labels had yet got their music stocked on the iTunes platform – by far the biggest player in the UK digital music space.