This week
David Bowie surprised us all with a new single 'Where
Are We Now?' and the announcement of a new album 'The Next Day' that will be
released this March. The single was immediately a huge seller on the iTunes
"Top Songs" chart in the UK. Now here's where it gets strange, you
would think it would be #1 this week on the UK singles chart…right? Well no, according
to an article in the
NME it's not on the chart at all because on iTunes when
you pre-order the 'The Next Day' album you get a FREE download of the 'Where
Are We Now?' single and because of this it has been ruled out of the UK Singles
Chart.
Taken
from the NME "The Official
Charts Company explained in a statement: "Owing to chart rules which are
agreed in partnership with UK record companies and retailers, data relating to
the David Bowie single 'Where Are We Now?' cannot currently be counted towards
the official singles charts, as the release is linked to an album pre-order
promotion and it is not possible to distinguish album sales from track sales
from the retail data received. Should it become possible in the future for regular
track sales to be distinguished from album pre-order incentive purchases, then
these sales can be counted towards the chart."
