LONDON (Reuters) – Virgin Radio and online music service Napster, combining one of the oldest music mediums with the newest, have teamed up to create the first UK radio program counting down the week’s most downloaded songs.
Starting on Aug. 29, the Napster Online Music Chart will feature songs that are downloaded or streamed on the online music service, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.
The Official UK Chart Company, Britain’s best-known music chart, will follow with a rival download tally of its own on Sept. 1 that counts sales data from Napster, Apple Computer’s iTunes, and vendors that work with music supplier OD2.
The download data will also be incorporated in a countdown program on BBC 1.
The launch of the charts comes as music downloads — legitimately through services like Napster and Apple’s iTunes, and illicitly through file-trading programs like KaZaa — are threatening to make CD singles obsolete.
More than a half-million songs were legitimately downloaded in the UK in the first five months of 2004, a figure that is expected to climb sharply in the wake of the heavily promoted launches of Napster, iTunes and Sony Connect.
The British Phonographic Industry reported that CD single sales tumbled 32 percent to 12 million pounds in the first quarter of 2004.
The UK music industry has responded by touting song downloads, which it sees as a potential savior in the world’s third-largest market.
Some industry observers expect the download data will be closely watched by record company officials anxious to better predict the whims of fickle music fans.
“In the music industry, success is determined by chart success,” said Anthony Ackenhoff, co-founder of London-based music marketing firm Frukt.
Virgin Radio is owned by UK media group SMG and shares only its name with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which plans to launch its own music download service in the United States and the UK.
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