New figures from the BPI show that music lovers in the UK are spending more on digital music than ever with sales now passing the £1bn landmark.
Adele 21 Adele’s 21 – biggest selling digital album ever in the UK
Almost a third of the total (£316.5m) was spent in 2010 alone, according to the new figures published in the British Phonographic Industry’s Annual Yearbook 2011.
The figures show that retail spending on digital music in the UK has been higher than £1,014m since the launch of legal online music services in 2004 and that the average price of an album now being £7.32 – down by a third in the last decade. Adele’s 21 is now the UK’s biggest selling digital album of all time.
Retail spending on digital albums increased by 23% to £146m in 2010, with more than 56.5m digital albums sold since the format launched in 2006 – according to the data, which is compiled for the BPI by the Official Charts Company.
In 2010, 21.0m digital albums were sold, with the format now accounting for 17.5 per cent – one in six – of all albums sold in the UK.
UK consumers splashed out £132m on digital single tracks last year, an increase of 12 per cent year-on-year. In total, 158.6m single tracks were sold digitally in 2010, with more than 579.4m sold since 2004. Digital now represents 98.7 per cent of all singles sales.
21 by Adele is the UK’s biggest selling digital album of all time, having leapfrogged The Fame by Lady Gaga and Kings of Leon’s Only By The Night into top slot since its release in January 2011. A total of 34 albums have now sold more than 100,000 copies digitally, with six of the top ten represented by UK artists.
The UK’s top-three selling digital tracks since sales began in 2004 were revealed as I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas, Sex On Fire by Kings Of Leon and Poker Face by Lady Gaga. A total of 74 digital tracks have now sold more than 500,000 copies in the UK to date.
Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said: “British music fans enjoy the world’s most competitive and innovative digital music scene, propelling all-time sales of digital singles and albums past the £1bn mark. The strength of British music means there is fantastic potential for further growth.
“Adele’s 21, the biggest seller of 2011, is already the UK’s biggest-selling digital album of all time. The hard work done by UK record labels in pushing forward the digital music market is paying off for consumers, digital retailers and the music community.”