Top 50 singles charts to include downloads

THE Irish are turning into a nation of music downloaders as we turn away from conventional compact discs and buy songs online to be played on computers, iPods and mobile phones.

From next month, the Top 50 singles chart will rank records according to how many copies are downloaded straight to computers as well as how many are sold on traditional CD, vinyl and cassette formats.

Now music industry bosses say downloading — or getting songs sent via the internet as audio files — is the future of music in Ireland.