The Big Top 40

Every Sunday night between 4pm and 7pm, loads of people tune in to see which song has hit the No.1 spot that week.

The chart is based on music download figures provided by iTunes.

The show starts at 4pm with a shortened version of the top 10 most downloaded song of the previous seven days. 

At 18:00, the live iTunes top 10 is frozen and the ten songs are played out in full, with the number 1 song announced just before 7pm.

The Big Top 40 show  is different to the Official UK Top 40 because unlike the chart compiled by the Official Charts Company, it does not take into account for other purchase methods such as CD singles or Amazon MP3. It is only based on downloads via iTunes. Their website states "Our top ten is based on real-time iTunes sales, we lockdown the top ten during the show on a Sunday at 6pm.  The rest of the chart, numbers 11 to 40 are a mix of iTunes sales data from across the week and airplay data from the stations which the show is broadcast on."

They also state that "Our chart is based around iTunes sales/downloads, which means every time you download a song from iTunes could change our chart". This is a great way to market the business because it allows listeners to influence the results of the charts right up to the last moment before they are frozen.

Here are some facts from the Big Top 40 Website for the week ending 5th April:

• 'Uptown Funk' finally left the top ten for the first time in SEVENTEEN weeks.

• Former No.1 'Love Me Like You Do' by Ellie Goulding, Rihanna's 'FourFiveSeconds' and Maroon 5's 'Sugar' have now both spent an incredible ten weeks each in the Vodafone Big Top 40.

• We have now had seven No.1 singles so far this year. This means that the average length a single spends at the top of the chart is TWO weeks.

• Ed Sheeran's former No.1 has now notched up an impressive ten months worth of appearances in the Vodafone Big Top 40.
  
  
• The Voice UK's StevieMcCrorie's 'Lost Stars' shot into first place just hours after its release. 

Here is a link to the archive of charts: http://www.bigtop40.com/chart/archive/2015/