June 22, 2010 by William Peebles
The power of audio download was proven over Christmas last year, when Rage Against The Machine got the number one spot in the music charts following a Facebook campaign encouraging users to download their track ‘Killing in the Name of’, in protest against reality television.
This week, there is another record set, as band the Black Eyed Peas achieved over one million downloads online, with their catchy song ‘I Got a Feeling’. With the stickiness factor of an early Kylie classic, this tune has obviously caught the ears of UK music enthusiasts, and the record downloads means that the Black Eyed Peas earn the accolade of most downloaded song of all time.
Originally released on 8 June, 2009, it spent two weeks at the number one spot and a total of 33 in the top 40. Downloads were introduced in to the UK charts and counted first in April 2005, with the proviso that online sales accompanied singles which were already available for purchase in stores nationwide. In 2006, downloaded songs were eligible to be considered for the charts in their own right. This changed the future of the music charts, enabling online music enthusiasts to lend their voice to the popularity contest.
About 98% of all single sales are now made from downloads, and it takes just 100,000 sales each week for a particular single to reach number one in the music charts.
Despite issues such as piracy and illegal copying, online sales continue to flourish and form a huge part of the UK’s musical buying decisions. Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company, said the milestone was “a very significant step for the download market. “It’s been with us for five years but this really marks a coming of age,” he added.
The trend for online downloads of music looks set to stay rather than decline, with many experts predicting the end of physical CD singles, as most people purchase music players and prefer the instant gratification of downloading from the web to their MP3 players.
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