Ok provocative title have i got your attention.
Just contemplating a world without the charts which is of course meaningless as fewer sales are required to get in the charts and it is of course bought legally and/or otherwise.

Perhaps we should do away with the charts after all what is more important

Artist A 26000 sales in week one and 0 thereafter ?
Artist B 1000 sales a week over the year, 52000 overall

Artist A gets a number one and so called chart cred.
Artist B gets number 50-30 and a so called flop.

Surely this is madness isnt it ?

Now hold onto your hats everyone. I believe that while
sales are very important, chart positions are not.
In fact sales is only one method of exploiting one's
content. I suggest the following:

1. Monetize free downloads. Ok Myspace is making millions from my music and yours !!! @$%%^@#^$$@$$
They should pay for it !!!! My suggestion well restrict
myspace to 30 sec clips Ok i will do that in good
time. Put it on your site and use either flash or WMA
to tie it to a webpage which can have sponsored links.

2. If we dont care about the charts then we can call
Itunes bluff put music on artist/label site and sell
it there. www.mediapal.com, www.artists-first.net can
help.

3. Focus on fans. Build up a myspace type network
of your own. Ok i know thats not easy but am researching it. If that is too hard then set up a cool
funky messageboard like this one. JK you got it right
ROTD is also well done and well designed.

4. Get into PR, hire a good publicist (when necessary)
and become a celebrity. After all Paris Hilton um has
how many hits !!!!

Would love to hear others' thoughts and ideas. We will
fashion a new music industry right here on this board.

PS i have a new website that would help artists, labels
with their online marketing and PR strategy. Not quite
ready for launch and i would like to hear your thoughts
on the site itself. Not necessarily whats on there.
But the site and idea of the site. Thanks

My New website

would be to make them a cululative chart - not based just on one weeks sales.

Some may say that that would mean some records remain at No 1 for long periods of time ... but is that such a bad thing? It would clearly and accurately reflect popularity. In any event - surely its better than the "new No 1 every week" and out of the charts after three weeks mentality?

These days if you go on a fortnight's holiday you can "miss" a No 1 entirely and never know that it existed !

the charts are usually biased in favor of new songs (songs on their way down are removed).

Are there comparable rules for the digital charts?

Can old tracks chart or are only new releases included?