The surge in the number of music tracks being downloaded rather than bought means that this year’s Christmas number one single could be decided through downloads.

This is the view of record label trade association, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), who have revealed that download sales this year to date are 400 per cent higher than last year, with around 23 million sold in total and a weekly figure of some 650,000.

The BPI predicts that this will rise to around a million tracks a week when Christmas actually arrives, driven by the vast number of iPods and other MP3 players that have been and will be bought as Christmas presents and in the retail industry’s sales.

Last year MP3 sales increased by 30 per cent at the close of the year, and the launch of new devices this year, coupled with increased demand, means that this is sure to be bettered as 2006 dawns.

The BPI revealed that this year’s best selling download to date was James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”, followed by “Hung Up” by Madonna and Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day”.

“Although you can’t put a download under the tree, seven out of 10 singles are sold as downloads and they are going to play a significant part in deciding this year’s Christmas number one,” the BPI stated.

© 2005 Adfero Ltd