All around the world, tell 'em what you heard: charts go global

“I’d like to teach the world to sing,” opined No Way Sis in their Top 40 hit of 1996, and now they’ll know exactly what to sing it, with the announcement of the first global music hit parade.

The ‘Worldwide Chart’ will be a joint venture between Channel 4 and Last.fm and is expected to rival the Top 40 by incorporating the whims of 20 million online music fans, like some kind of giant taste sucker.

The British-based Last.fm will compile the chart according to the most listened-to tracks from its network of 20 million active users in 232 countries. Channel 4 will then broadcast the chart through its online radio service.

The website boasts around 65 million songs on its database, which is around 1.07 songs for every person currently living in the UK. Mine is ‘Day Trip To Bangor’ by Fiddler’s Dram, plus 0.07 of ‘Pop In An Oak’ by Rednex. That is all.