Breathing new life into the single: combining charts will encourage labels to co-ordinate their physical and digital releases.(Editorial)

It is easy to forget how remarkable the rate of growth of the download has been.

Little more than a year ago, singles remained an almost-exclusively physical concept in the legitimate world; today, the number of individual downloads sold every week are on par with physical singles. And suddenly, here we are, at the landmark moment of seeing downloads about to enter the Official Singles Chart.

Initially, however, the move is unlikely to materially alter the face of the Top 40. The relatively low number of sales which even the biggest-selling downloads can snare--with the high volumes of download sales spread across a far larger range of titles than in the physical singles market--means that few tracks will be catapulted towards the top of the chart on digital sales only.

And the most popular downloads also achieve their biggest sales in the period when, under the new chart's rules, they won't count towards the chart--in the weeks prior to their physical sales release.

But combining the chart is sure to change the landscape. It will make sense for labels looking to maximise chart position to co-ordinate their physical and digital releases.

This could result in delayed download release dates--which are often timed to coincide with radio release dates--or a contraction of radio ...