The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) Ltd have announced that music downloads from legal sites in the UK have topped half a million for the year so far. Compare that to last years total at this point of “virtually none”, and it’s pretty clear that the UK public have embraced the online revolution that is the virtual music store. The top selling single so far is 2,000 Miles by Coldplay, which is just ahead of OutKast’s Hey Ya, which goes to show that not only do UK downloaders like their music online, they also have some taste as well.
The rapid expansion of music downloading in the UK can be contributed to the high availability of online music stores now offering downloads in the UK. Napster recently launched their UK based service, and Coca-cola have been running their store since the beginning of the year. Oxfam have also recently launched a music download site, Bignoisemusic.com.
