Monkeys' chart error

Error on iTunes leads to surge in singles chart

03 May 07 - The Arctic Monkeys invasion of the singles chart was caused, in part, by an error on the iTunes Music Store, it has emerged.

The Monkeys' chart domination stepped up to another level at the weekend; not only did their album Favourite Worst Nightmare head straight to the top of the album chart, but each track from the record made it into the top 200 singles chart.

According to Music Week magazine, iTunes put the tracks up for download individually for a few hours, before they made the album available as a bundle; forcing fans who were rushing to buy the record straight away to buy the songs one at a time.

Following the figures this generated on Monday, it was assumed all the songs would make it into the top 75, but beyond the first day of release sales focussed increasingly on album purchases, resulting in only two tracks making the top 75.

A spokeswoman for Domino said that an error "looks pretty likely" to have occurred, but said she did not have "exact details" of what happened. A spokesperson for Apple was unavailable for comment.

Lucy O'Doherty