Record chart to count downloads

Billboard magazine will bring sales back in a meaningful way to the formula for determining its Hot 100 Singles chart by including digital downloads of songs along with radio airplay.

The sales of physical singles by and large have dropped to negligible levels over the last two decades, leaving the music industry trade weekly’s Hot 100 chart almost exclusively a reflection of the airplay that the most popular songs receive.

“While radio stations are programmed to reflect the wants of its listeners, there is no substitute to measure a song’s true popularity than the purchase by a consumer,” said Billboard’s Hot 100 chart manager, Silvio Pietroluongo.

With the exception of the occasional blockbuster hit from an “American Idol” winner, singles often have topped the list of the nation’s top-selling recordings with just a few thousand copies sold.

“The advent of digital downloads brings a viable sales component back to the Billboard Hot 100,” Pietroluongo said.

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Randy Lewis