Downloads in the charts

What do you all think about music downloads taking over from physical CD single sales?

Personally I'm not too sure. We had the chart on in the car on Sunday and most of it was a load of rubbish. Maybe that is the current youth of today and I'm out of touch (getting old)! But as single songs downloaded from commercial sites are not just new releases is this really a good reflection of current new releases, as the old music charts always reflected?

Should they just show the sales of new releases? or all current weekly releases? :unsure:

Quite funny Radio One managing to get the old Billy song back into the charts after 8 years though. :)

Well the singles chart should reflect what songs people are buying I suppose. I personally think it's a bit pointless, singles are generally promotions to get people to buy albums. If you want the new music, it's shown on most of the music channels (the music channels that actually play music unlike MTV)

The album chart is what I'm more interested in.

Yeah, I'm pretty much with Alex on this one. I stopped caring about singles charts a long, long time ago. I couldn't even tell you what's at number one ATM.

Not that I care too much for album charts either, but I might have a quick look through them if I'm in amusic shop to see if there's anything takes my fancy. To here new stuff I'll check out the music channels on telly or the radio.

I'm not into what's on the charts so I wouldn't even know where to begin. I doubt my downloading of a Xentrix album is going to have any effect on the charts. :D

Same with me. I never listen to the radio chart shows or look at the singles charts in music shops. We just happened to have the charts on last weekend because my girlfriend had heard about the switch over to downloads being used for the charts.

It didn't seen to have improved the selection! :lol: We turned it off after 4 songs that were all rapping, r&b and lots of other rubbish.

I tend to also just stick the music channels on for a bit to see if anything new sounds good, or look at some sites online to see what albums are selling well and peoples comments on how good they thought they were. I find Amazon can actually be quite good for that.

I never listen to the radio too, they always play the same, and always the same crap. Gonna d/l the new One Man Army album, which will be released soon, and just d/l the newest Legion of the Damned album to give it a try. And such music is not played on any radio station.

"Heavy must stay together, all others must die" Paul Baloff ;)

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Originally Posted by Demon Cleaner

I never listen to the radio too, they always play the same, and always the same crap. Gonna d/l the new One Man Army album, which will be released soon, and just d/l the newest Legion of the Damned album to give it a try. And such music is not played on any radio station.

"Heavy must stay together, all others must die" Paul Baloff ;)

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The immortal Paul Baloff! HAIL!!!! My favorite quote is "This ain't no Arsenio Hall show, destroy something!"

The new Legion of the Damned is total @ss kickery too!! If you liked the last one, you're absolutely guaranteed to like the new one too. It's almost like they just made an extension to Malevolent Rapture and called it Sons of the Jackal.

I still have to listen to it, but if it's as the previous one, I'm gonna buy it, as I always do. Look out for the new One Man Army and the Undead Quartett, it's coming mid february.

For me the Gallup compiled Top 75 Singles chart has always been a bit pants....I read that it was compiled by sales of singles across 200 mainstream music stores throughout the country, which to me was not a clear reflection of singles sales (ignoring independent records stores, PR men buying singles to get certain artists higher places in charts)

However, at least that was a medium to generally hear an artists NEW repetoire, in itself an advert for the artist, and if an artist had released more than one single from an album it was a way to determine if you really did want to buy the album you were mulling over.

As for a chart based on downloads then clearly the above does not apply.

Sadly though times are changing, in the 1980's and 90's you rushed out to buy a single to hear the extended remix (looking back most were cheesey lol), or to get that gem of a b-side that wasnt available on the album, or in some instances an ep of totally new material which a lot of independent bands did..like one of my 80`s post-punk faves Cocteau Twins did regularly.

The internet definitely has changed the way we view and listen to new bands and music as a whole, accessibility, advertising, its all changed totally. Curious about an artist you have heard of? 5 seconds later you can be at their myspace page listening to one of their songs.

So for me, a chart based on dowloads or compiled on single sales is all irrelevent, if you seriously are into music, you read about artists, you check out their websites, you buy music magazines, and most importantly you go to gigs.

If anything, what is most worrying is the lack of television media (terrestrial) for bands to promote new albums, classic shows like The Tube & The Old Grey Whistle Test have now been replaced with the only good thing on television in the guise of Jools Holland, where he brilliantly has live sets from an ecelectic mix of musical styles and its great publicity when an artist releases a new album.

I think more should be concentrated on album sales and live plugging of artists talents......

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The immortal Paul Baloff! HAIL!!!! My favorite quote is "This ain't no Arsenio Hall show, destroy something!"

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hehe, I know, it was your signature on the old boards. He says it on the live CD just when the intro of No Love ends.

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Originally Posted by Demon Cleaner

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The immortal Paul Baloff! HAIL!!!! My favorite quote is "This ain't no Arsenio Hall show, destroy something!"

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hehe, I know, it was your signature on the old boards. He says it on the live CD just when the intro of No Love ends.

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There was just no beating Baloff for inciting good friendly violent fun!

I'll have to pick up that new One Man Army too, I dug the previous one.