The UK Top 40 Charts
The UK Top 40 Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry and is based on combined record sales. 6,500 shops contribute sales data, as well as most UK online digital download stores. No radio airplay statistics are used for the official UK Chart. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with most tracks being released on Mondays.
Top 40 Download Charts
Lots of download sites all contribute to the download charts including iTunes and Napster. The main chart contains the Top 40 downloads but only the Top 20 are of main interest. The chart only uses sales of permanent digital downloads, that is single-download tracks on non-subscription online music stores.
Top 40 Albums
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the UK. To qualify for the UK albums chart the album must be more than 3 tracks or 20 minutes long. The most successful artists in the charts depends on the criteria used. As of 2005, Queen albums have spent more time on the UK album charts than those of any other band followed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and U2.
