Available from Tuesday: chart downloads!

Gabriel Gilson, Radio 3's Interactive Editor, on a new solution to an old problem.

If you're of a certain age, you'll remember the weekly excitement generated by the broadcast of the Top 40 and the nail biting build up to the new Number One. It was so unmissable, many of us spent our Sunday afternoons holding a portable cassette recorder up to the radio in a desperate attempt to capture the excitement. The snatches of family life those tapes would have on them if they hadn't been unspooled somewhere along the M1 could be a great cultural archive!



It's taken a few years, but Radio 3 are now able to offer the same thing, though with much more convenience. Every Tuesday we'll be releasing a weekly podcast (free download if you prefer) with highlights from the week's Specialist Classical Music Chart, as broadcast on Radio 3 Breakfast. So you'll be able to take it away and listen where you want to.

I'm looking forward to having a soundtrack to my cycle rides, though that's probably not the safest method. If you try it, you'll notice it features longer extracts of music than our other podcasts. For a six-month trial, we're able to include up to 9 minutes of music from each CD. It's new for us and the music industry, so we'd like to hear what you think. You can comment on this blog, and there'll be an online survey in the new year.



We think it'll be a great new way to listen and a quick way to find out which new releases you might want to find out more about. In these days of digital plenty, that's pretty handy - all now available without the sound of the dog barking from the next room.

The Radio 3 Specialist Classical Chart podcast will be available from Tuesday by clicking this link.