29
Mar
2010
Official Asian Download Chart (Week 1)
This past Saturday, the first ever Asian Download Chart show began on the BBC Asian Network. Hosted by Bobby Friction, the top 40 Asian songs that were legally downloaded/sold across a seven day period were counted down.
This is a gigantic leap forward for Asian music as a whole, as it now officially puts real numbers into context, instead of people just biggin themselves up misinforming the public.
Of the 40 songs showcased, less than half were of the Bhangra variety, as Miss Pooja, Foji and Malkit had multiple entries. As expected, there were a lot of Bollywood entries, due to the sheer size of the Bollywood music listening demographic.
However, Jay Sean took the top spot with “Do You Remember,” and Imran Khan took the number 2 spot with “Bewafa.”
Take a look at the whole chart here.
I really need to state the importance of this show, as it not only clearly shows what has been popular, but hopefully, it will also drive people to actually purchase music legally, so they can see their favourite songs chart.
As stated on the Asian Network Download Charts Page; The Official Asian Download Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company from UK sales data measured across a 7 day period from a panel of more than 25 digital retailers. (Only downloads released within the last 8 months are eligible.)
I don’t think this chart makes any sense. What makes it an “Asian Download Chart”? The ethnicity of the singer? Of course Jay Sean is going to be number 1 – he’s on a major record label making music for a black audience. His demographic is much bigger than the likes of Imran Khan who only appeals to Asians. And what about examples like Swami? “Sugarless” was given away for free on multiple sites including this one and DesiHits which is the biggest Desi site. Clearly, it’s not going to chart that way but I BET more people heard and loved the song and have it on their iPods etc. Bobby Friction himself had it at #2 in his “Biggest Songs of 2009″ chart, behind “Amplifier”.
Transparency is def. needed in the scene but this doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it.