2014 UK sales dominated by British acts
According to 2014 sales figures compiled by the Official Chars Company and released by BPI (British Phonographic Industry), British acts have filled the top 10 best-selling artist albums of the year for the first time.
Following 2013, where no album sold 1 million copies, Ed Sheeran’s album X was the most popular album of 2014, selling 1.7 million copies (which is in fact the biggest one-year total since Adele’s 21 in 2011). Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour also passed the 1 million mark, selling 1.25 million copies.
It is the tenth year in succession that the year’s biggest-selling artist album has come from a British act.
The growth in music streaming is predicted to continue in 2015, with YouTube set to launch a new music subscription service and Apple are expected to give an extra push or a possible relaunch for the Beats service it acquired last year.
Despite an 8% decline in sales of CD albums, sales of vinyl records reached almost £1.3m. This marks a staggering 65% increase in this small market, with Pink Floyd’s The Endless River and AM by Arctic Monkeys among the big sellers.
The Now That’s What I Call Music series continued to generate huge sales with Now 89 the biggest selling compilation of the year and the third biggest-selling album overall and Disney’s Frozen soundtrack is the second biggest various artists release of 2014.
For the full story, and the top 10 chart, click on this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30641372
For more interesting and informative facts on 2014 sales etc click on this link for the BPI’s own news posting http://www.bpi.co.uk/home/british-artists-dominate-music-sales-as-streaming-doubles-in-2014.aspx