May 4, 2007 12:01

iTunes blamed for Arctic Monkeys singles boost

Blunder inadvertantly gave band chart domination

Photo Gallery: Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys' unprecedented chart success this week was caused partly by a mistake made by the iTunes Music Store.

As previously reported on NME, a download error was suspected to be responsible for boosting sales, and iTunes has emerged as the major download site in question, according to music industry bible Music Week.

The band enjoyed a staggeringly successful weekend: not only did new album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' top the album chart, but they had 17 tracks in the Top 200 of the UK singles chart, including album tracks 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and '505', which made it into the Top 75.

Download giant iTunes reportedly put all of the tracks up for sale for several hours before making the album available itself – an error which saw many fans desperate to snap up the album simply buying all of the tracks separately.

A spokeswoman for the band's label Domino told BBC 6 Music that a a mistake "looks pretty likely" as the reason behind the band's chart domination.