And the winner is...

Those chart positions "in full"...

1 ESTELLE FT KANYE WEST American Boy
2 DUFFY Mercy
3 LEONA LEWIS Better In Time / Footprints In The Sand
4 ONEREPUBLIC Stop and stare
5 NICKELBACK Rockstar
6 FLO RIDA FT T-PAIN Low
7 MADONNA FT JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE 4 Minutes (oh dear)
8 UTAH SAINTS Something Good 08
9 GIRLS ALOUD Can't Speak French
10 H TWO O FT PLATNUM What's It Gonna Be

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Chart madness = brilliant

So, the first UK singles chart under the new rules (which allow any song purchased online to be counted) has just been revealed and... well, not much has changed.

Leona (boo!) is still number one and Take That (yay!) are still in the top three. The only major upset is the re-entry of Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars (awww!) at number nine. But even that's not much of a surprise, as it only left the top 40 nine weeks ago and is, quite frankly, a great, great song.

At the lower end of the chart, Nelly Furtado's Maneater and Gnarls Baarkley's Crazy get back in at numbers 38 and 30 respectively and, outside the top 40, four tracks from the High School Musical album (bleurgh!) have sold enough to become considered for the charts.

This is all quite brilliant, as it means WE ARE NOW IN CHARGE! No longer can the record companies (boo!) tell us what is and what isn't a single - it's completely up to us and our completely random taste in music.

Obviously, they'll have a big hissy fit and change the rules again shortly - but in the meantime, let's support the Proclaimers (och aye!), who have the 92nd best selling single in the UK this week. If enough of us log onto iTunes and download a copy of 500 Miles next week it'll be number one, and the world will have changed for the better. Power to the people, stick it to "da" man, up yours delors, etc.

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Download chart delayed! Because it is shit!

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI, or CARTEL for short) has obviously been reading my blog.

Just three weeks after my well-argued and not at all rambling diatribe on the download charts, they've decided to delay incorporating downloads into the official UK Top 40.

Actually, it probably has more to do with the fact they're trying to squeeze more money out of people downloading music at exactly the same time as the European Commission is investigating the suspiciously high prices of those downloads in the UK.

Aren't multinational corporations marvellous?

BBC NEWS: Download chart debut is delayed

FT.com: Top music labels try to raise prices for downloads

The Register: Europe probes 'rip off' Apple iTunes pricing

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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

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FAILURE

Damn, shit, fuck, bugger, balls.

Radio One: Official Top 40

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Elvis update

Elvis is still on course to have the 1000th UK number one single. You have only three days left to stop this travesty. The credit for this momentous piece of chart history must not go to a fat dead man and a greasy accountant in EMI's marketing department.



That is all.

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Elvis must be stopped

Elvis went to number one yesterday with a re-release of "Jailhouse Rock". For the next three million weeks, RCA will release an Elvis single every Monday with the hope of a massive run at the top of the charts.



This is clearly evil of the highest order. An even bigger gimmick than Pop Idol (and potentially more destructive to the music industry). Even worse - if Elvis reaches number one this week, he'll have the 1000th UK number one single. Therefore, we've all got a human duty to buy something, anything, else.



Unfortunately, there's nothing particularly good in the shops today. The best chance we have is to buy the new Killers single (you know, the one that Radio 1 have been playing to death since November). Go to HMV, where you can get three copies for a fiver.



This sick filth must be stopped.

HMV: Buy the Killers

BBC NEWS: Elvis regains top chart position

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