Internet saved the radio star

After 50 years of pop charts, are they finally becoming democratic with the arrival of the music download?

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Hard to remember now, but there was a time when downloading music off the internet was a strange and marginal piece of geekdom.

But this week, internet single downloads are set to pass the 150 million mark - and with the official charts now counting downloads, the music industry itself is on the precipice of potentially dramatic change, with bands who aren't signed to a record label now able to enter the charts.

And one internet radio station today launched a campaign to help unsigned bands storm the Christmas charts.

That's not as unlikely as it sounds - and so the race for the Christmas number 1 this year is set to look a little different .

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