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Internet saved the radio star

Updated on 15 November 2007

By Nima Elbagir

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

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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