ED SHEERAN RULES ALL U.K. RETAIL

We all knew that Ed Sheeran’s ÷ was the biggest selling album in Blighty last year with 2.7m sales, but what’s also interesting is that the record outsold all other entertainment releases (including video games and films), and is one of two music related entries in the Top 10 of the Entertainment Retailer’s Association's biggest sellers chart for 2017.

The second music entry is Rag’n’Bone Man with Human (Columbia) at #10, with just over 1m units sold across both digital and physical.

In 2016, there was one music entry in ERA’s Top 10, Now That’s What I Call Music 95, which appeared at #7 with 908k sales—a third of what Sheeran shifted. The 93rd edition of the popular album compilation appeared at #11 with 852k sales. In 2017, the 96th release charted at #22 with 602k sales, followed by its successor at #23 with 596k sales. Sam Smith was the next artist album at #31 with The Thrill of it All (Capitol) on 502k sales.

Last year was the first year that the British public spent more money on music, video and games (£7.2b), instead of books, magazines and newspapers (£7.1b). That £7.2b figure is up 8.8% on 2016 and was fuelled by growth of digital services like Spotify, Steam,Netflix, Amazon, Deezer, Sky, Apple and Google.

In 2017, 56% of revenues came from access models like music and video streaming, electronic movie rental or subscriptions to online multiplayer games, paying for digital micro-transactions and making in-app purchases on mobile devices. However, physical is far from dead: vinyl albums continued their long-term revival with sales up 34% to reach £87.7m.