Internet News

Christmas number one goes digital

The internet has passed yet another milestone with the news that a download-only track has scooped the Christmas number one.

Killing in the Name, a 17-year-old song from Rage Against the Machine, comprehensively beat The Climb by Joe McElderry. The rock anthem sold 500,000 copies last week compared to 450,000 for the X Factor winner's debut single. And in a sign of the times, Killing in the Name was only available as a digital download – the first time a track has won the coveted Christmas number one through online sales alone.

The grassroots campaign to stop X Factor claiming a fifth successive festive chart topper was organised by Jon Morter, a part-time DJ and logistics expert from Essex. He used the internet to realise his goal. Almost a million people joined the official Facebook group while celebrities such as Peter Serafinowicz and Marcus Brigstocke promoted the campaign virally on their Twitter accounts.

Twitter and Facebook were vital

Following confirmation of the result, Mr Morter told the Guardian that social media marketing was an integral part of the campaign. "I think it just shows that in this day and age, if you want to say something, then you can – with the help of the internet and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter," he said. He also revealed that X Factor creator Simon Cowell had called him on Saturday night, a day before the winner was announced. "He commended us on how we had marketed the campaign and said, if we won, he would be the first to congratulate us," he recalled.

Many Twitter members used the micro-blogging tool to show their support for the campaign. On Sunday, "RATM", "Rage Against The" and "#ratm4xmas" all became trending topics, meaning they were among the most mentioned phrases on Twitter. According to trend tracker Trendistic, for example, the phrase "RATM" alone accounted for 1.29 per cent of all public tweets between 6pm and 7pm yesterday.