Download this!

Downloading music is very bad. Unless it is very good. Record companies still can't really decide what they think.



Is downloading the heinous end to their stranglehold over consumer's tastes? Or is it a brilliant moneymaker - where songs cost the same as before, but the company doesn't have to invest in pesky things like cover art, advertising and shovelling eighteen tons of coke up their noses?



It looks like they're slowly veering towards the latter point of view, as legal downloads are being included in the Billboard Singles chart for the first time. Frankly, this doesn't really matter as the US "Hot 100" singles is largely made up anyway, including ephemeral statistics like airplay and requests as well as actual physical sales.



The bad news is that the UK charts are planning a similar move later this year. For while most US homes have broadband, the UK download charts are dominated by indie-nerd students (someone probably told them that Nestlé are killing babies with Kazaa and Soulseek).



Look at today's top sellers:

itunes

Stereophonics - Dakota

Napster

Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

(Athelete's anthem to dreariness, Wires, is in the top ten twice, for fuck's sake)

MyCokeMusic

Chemical Brothers - Galvanize

Wanadoo

Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For?

(Admittedly a great song - but who's downloading it 10 weeks after it came out?)



So, here's the plan: We hack into the legal download sites, force the Tweenies to number one for 18 weeks, and then watch in glee as Wes Butters explodes.



Ka-blooie!

BBC: Downloads enter US singles chart

Tweet