Quantcast

BOWIE SOLD THE MOST IN BLIGHTY 2016

David Bowie was the top-selling artist in the U.K. last year across 1.6m albums, according to the AES calculation (which comprises physical and digital album sales, as well as track-equivalent albums, in which 1k streams = one album). The stat comes from the BPI’s yearbook, which contains a number of interesting observations on the British music market.

Bowie fans bought 1.5m albums and his catalogue amassed 127m streams. His Top 5 most popular releases were #1 Blackstar (RCA), followed by Parlophone albums Best of Bowie, Nothing has Changed - The Very Best of, Legacy and Hunky Dory.

When it comes to all albums (not just artist albums), the Now brand is #1, with its 95 iteration (Sony Music CG/Virgin EMI) selling 868k copies last year. 93 follows at #2 with 94 at #4. We already wrote about the top-selling artist albums and singles tally here.

Here’s some more takeouts from the yearbook: The sales of Adele’s 25 boosted the weekly average sale of a #1 artist album to 82.4k in 2015, and that tally fell by half (to 41.6k) in 2016. Only three titles (by Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Michael Ball & Alfie Boe) managed weekly sales of over 100k (gold) in the U.K. 2016. However, the average chart-eligible sales for positions #30 to #75 all increased.

Is the lack of gold-certified albums the sign of a slow year for Blighty, or a sign of the times? The measure has been used in the past to define a successful breakthrough artist—a rule that deserves some scrutiny in the age we live in. British artist’s share of album sales fell 3.8% to 46.7% last year, while the U.S. took a 39.2% share and Canada tallied 5.5%.

When it comes to streaming, playlists take a 20-25% share of audio streams with 85% of those coming from curated/editorial lists and 15% user-created/owned. For the 75-80% other category, 50% of listening is happening within own collections/saved tracks and the other half from direct plays.

NEAR TRUTHS: SPRING BLOOMS
Here come the big guns. (3/28a)
THE COUNT: COLDPLAY IS HOT, COUNTRY'S COOKIN' IN THE U.K.
The latest tidbits from the bustling live sector (3/28a)
CITY OF HOPE TAPS MARCIANO FOR TOP HONOR
This year's philanthropic model (3/28a)
TRUST IN THE TOP 20
Hip-hop is no longer hibernating. (3/28a)
UMG BROADENS SPOTIFY OFFERINGS
Sir Lucian and Daniel are in harmony. (3/28a)
THE NEW UMG
Gosh, we hope there are more press releases.
TIKTOK BANNED!
Unless the Senate manages to make this whole thing go away, that is.
THE NEW HUGE COUNTRY ACT
No, not that one.
TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN PLAYLIST
Now 100% unlicensed!
 Email

 First Name

 Last Name

 Company

 Country
CAPTCHA code
Captcha: (type the characters above)