The Official UK Music Charts have undergone a lot of change in the past few years and it finally appears that those dinosaurs at the British Phonographic Industry have realised that the way to embrace the Internet is not to try and sue everyone that attempts to use it.
Music downloads had been much vilified by the BPI and copyright lawyers, who soon set after the likes of Napster and are currently going after Kazaa, and Russian site 'allofmp3'.
But in 2003, legal downloads started to take off. To date, Apple's iTunes music store have sold over 2billion tracks and currently holds the vast majority of the UK legal download market.
However, it wasn't until two years later that the BPI decided to step into the 21st century. They started to realise that people weren't interested in buying CD's in HMV or Woolworths and playing them on their Hifi. Instead, they were buying their music in their own front room, listening to it on their iPod and wirelessly transmitting the tracks around their home. And that led to changes in the charts.
First, the idea of a separate 'downloads chart' was toyed with but soon led to confusion and effectively, created two singles charts. So in April 2005, legal downloads were counted for the first time in a single, unified Official UK Singles chart. The results were almost immediate. Gnarls Barkley's single "Crazy" became the first ever track to reach number one based purely on download sales.
The only major stipulation with this system however was that the download could only chart if a physical copy was available in the shops at the same time, or the day following the song's entrance in the charts. That stipulation was removed in January 2007 and now any track, from any era, from any artist - dead or alive, can potentially hit number one.
And now I've eventually got to whatever point I was trying to make, because whilst the system has it's advantages, it's got some pretty big pitfalls as well.
The main bonus is that it more accurately than ever highlights the public's buying and listening habits. The week after the change, Snow Patrol re-entered the charts with 'Chasing Cars', a single that had previously reached number six back in July 2006 whilst rock band 'Koopa' became the first unsigned band in chart history to have a top 40 hit.
Where before, the charts were based on what record companies did to sell and market their music, it was now fuelled by consumers and truly reflected listener habits.
Well, maybe. You see whilst the new system has made the charts more meaningful and up-to-date, it's very much open to abuse.
Just take a look at this week's Official Top 40 and in particular, number 17:
17: Billie - Honey to the BeeNow under the current system, this is a perfectly legitimate entry. The track reached number three in 1999 and thanks to downloads, has returned.
But this isn't a chart position based on music merits. Instead it's a chart position based on one of many radio station induced campaigns, in this case led by Chris Moyles on BBC Radio 1, to effectively turn the changes into a joke in the pursuit of cheap publicity.
No doubt the campaigns will quickly die off and the lazy marketing men of Britain will look for another bandwagon to jump aboard.
The positives of the new system certainly outweigh the short-term negatives caused by a few idiots and their subservient band of sheep-like listeners.
