Regular Tipsheeters will know about my idea to create a Popularity Index - POP-I - which found out each week the most POPULAR music in Britain, as opposed to measuring sales (easily hypeable by major labels to reflect their priorities).

The No1 today, by a long way, would be, like it or not, Susan Boyle and I Dreamed A Dream.

Not available for purchase but clearly the most popular track in Britain this week.

See what I mean?

How would you work out how popular it is? I know it has millions of views on Youtube, but how many of those views are more due to curiosity? How many stayed through the whole song? I like her voice and she sang the song wonderfully. I'm just not sure how anyone could tell the difference between those who listen out of love and those who listen out of curiosity.

It's like one of my local shops which had a large volume of people going through it but which actually sold very little. It looked like they were doing a good trade but most people were just browsing. The shop has now closed.

It's free to browse or listen.

Ah, that's the point Emma.

Pop-I would seek to discover popularity, not sales. So curiosity is as valid a reason as love. If people like something then they would spread the word, listen again, vote for it and so on.

If they didn't like it, initial interest would drop off fast.

It would not be an easy chart to compile but it's what we need - the music industry (to discover what is genuinely popular, thus provoking further investment and development), radio and TV (programming aid - as the chart used to be when Top of the Pops started and genuine sales reflected popularity and not priority), press aid (what to write about and feature), and so on.

I have my compilation ideas. All we need is investment.