Hit40UK ditches CD sales for downloads

A CD
A CD

The UK's commercial radio chart, Hit40UK, is finally ditching physical CD sales from its official figures. Instead it will concentrate solely on downloads, effective from this weekend.

The weekly show (previously known as the Pepsi Chart Show with Neil 'Doctor' Fox) is broadcast to more than 130 commercial radio stations and still pulls in an average of 1.9 million listeners every Sunday.

One more nail…

Ignoring physical sales is no real surprise considering downloads account for 96% of the chart. Regardless, would anyone buy a CD single knowing it will do absolutely nothing for its chart placement? Does anyone even buy CD singles anymore? Where exactly is the CD singles section located in HMV? Has anyone even seen a CD single in the last five years?

Tom Porter worked on MusicRadar from its mid-2007 launch date to 2011, covering a range of music and music making topics, across features, gear news, reviews, interviews and more. A regular NAMM-goer back in the day, Tom now resides permanently in Los Angeles, where he's doing rather well at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).