The new version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? has already become the fastest selling single of the year – after just a day’s sales.
Figures from the Official Charts Company show it is a cert to claim the No 1 position at the weekend after shifting 206,000 download copies in the hours after they went on sale yesterday at 8am.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w7jyVHocTk&feature=oembed
The original track by Band Aid released in 1984 sold around 200,000 copies in the space of two days.
The latest version – the fourth different production of the song – features acts such as One Direction, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Bastille and Ellie Goulding. It has been available to pre-order since last week.
Bob Geldof, Paul Epworth and Midge Ure arriving at the recording of Band Aid 30 (See Li / Demotix)
The track is being sold for 99p on the iTunes store with all proceeds going to the fundraising efforts to help ease the Ebola crisis in west Africa, giving a total of around £204,000 from UK sales.
Mastermind of the project Bob Geldof yesterday claimed that within minutes of the track being premiered on The X Factor on Sunday evening, they had raised £1 million. A number to text donations was also given out during the programme.
The song is also being sold in other territories and by last night it had topped the iTunes chart in more than 50 countries.
The latest version of the track appears to be on course to outstrip the previous effort – Band Aid 20 which was released in 2004 and shifted 297,000 during the course of its first week on sale.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylrd19Wq9Yo&feature=oembed
It is also way ahead of the next biggest seller of the year, Clean Bandit’s Rather Be, which sold 163,000 copies during its opening week in January.
Martin Talbot, the chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: “Band Aid 30 reflects all that is great about the British public and the British music scene. Everyone expected a strong start from Bob Geldof and his team, but they have outperformed expectations with a truly exceptional first day’s sales which has put it on course to being a record setter once more in 2014.”
