How useful are the UK record sales charts and do you believe they have a future?

The UK singles chart contains the weekly top-selling 200 singles recordings in the UK, based upon combined sales and downloads. Around 6,500 UK stores contribute to the charts along with download sales. From this angle then, the charts are a useful way of monitoring consumption habits of what the audience listens to and how the music is reaching them. The Top 40 is first issued on BBC Radio 1 between 16:00 and 19:00 on sundays before the full official 100 are posted on Official Charts Company website. Another way people can find out about the Top 40 is a rival radio broadcast called The Big Top 40 Show which is broadcasted on 140 commercial local radio stations. As of 1 July 2012, 1200 singles have topped the charts yet the precise number is debatable due to profusion of competing charts in the 1950's to the 1980's.

The charts can be accessed on many platforms. The most popular being the Radio 1 broadcast but to get the full 100 you would have to go to The official charts company website. another way to access the charts is on iTunes where you can see the highest selling song that week along with the top 200 other songs. Many consumers like to watch the music videos of the Top 40 and so channels like 4Music and MTV allow the consumer to watch the Top 40 and also find out little bits of information about the artist as it's playing.

As a marketing gimmick back in 1952 New Musical Express started a 'top 12' which soon became a sought after aspect of musical journalism. The UK charts are an indispensable element of marketing campaigns from major record labels.

This is most evident in the annual run up to christmas number 1 which has been held by X-Factor for many years. For example because when Alexandra Burke won the X-Factor with her version of 'Hallelujah' had, in 24 hours, 105,000 downloads which made a gross profit £60,000. This is within 24 hours of it being released and before it's even made it to the stores.

Digital sales were only contributed to the charts in october 2007, beforehand digital sales only counted if it had a physical copy out in stores.