Digital download
A
digital download (also known as a
digital single or a
paid digital download) is an official legally released music
single released by artists to the public. Popular legal online music store that sell digital singles and
albums include Apple's
iTunes and
Napster. Many people use
P2P programs such as
LimeWire or
Morpheus to illegally download copyrighted music.
Digital downloads can usually be available as an album track and sometimes, if released as a radio single, a separate digital set will be released. The term "digital download" is a buzzword often used by record companies and the media when describing legal music-download sites.
Although digital downloads seem like a new idea, they have actually been around since around 2000. They were first compiled by Billboard in 2003, but they didn't gain mainstream acceptance until around February 2005, when digital sales for singles started to be included in the Billboard
Hot 100 and other Billboard charts. In the year before, the Hot 100 chart was very similar to the
Hot 100 Airplay chart, because there were only minor CD-single sales affecting the chart. The inclusion of digital singles has immensely helped many songs chart and peak higher, including
Jessica Simpson's "
These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" which became her second-highest peaking Hot 100 single thanks to digital sales. Another example is
Britney Spears's "
Do Somethin'" which wasn't released as a radio single, but charted in 2005 due to top-fifty (number forty-nine) digital sales. Modern
pop-punk has also benefited from digital downloads, with
Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Goin' Down" and
My Chemical Romance's "
Helena" peaking at numbers eight and thirty-three respectively on the Hot 100, with almost no radio airplay.
Single certifications were introduced in February 2005. Songs that sell a certain number of copies are often certified by the
RIAA with the permission of the artist and the record company.
* 500,000 copies: Gold
* 1,000,000 copies: Platinun
In November 2005, the record for the bestselling digital single was held by
Gwen Stefani's "
Hollaback Girl", which has sold over one million downloads, making it the first song to achieve diamond download status. Since then, "
Bad Day" by
Daniel Powter has overcome it in terms of sales to become the bestselling digital single. The highest week sales was held by "
Gold Digger" by hip-hop star
Kanye West. (It is now held by "
Hips Don't Lie" by Latin-pop star
Shakira when she sold 267,000 downloads in the first week of June, certifing her platinum in just one week, a feat that had never been achieved until then.) The single beat the previous record holder, Gwen Stefani, in the week of
September 8 2005, and has sold enough copies to be certified quadruple platinum (though it hasn't been certified yet). The song also is responsible for ending
Mariah Carey's fourteen week run of her come-back single, "
We Belong Together". The underground dance music scene has not been left out either with the digital download network Beatport.com hitting it's one million download mark in 2005.
The digital download is quickly becoming a top medium for music, with media devices such as the
iPod leading a revolution in music playback and storage potential.
The term has also been used outside the music industry, with
MMORPG Star Wars: Galaxies offering
expansion packs without purchasing a retail version as a 'digital download'.
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Hot Digital Songs*
Hot Digital Tracks
