16Q1 2012 ALL CHARTS, GRAPHS AND DATA IN THIS REPORT ARE COPYRIGHT OF THE OFFICIAL CHARTS COMPANY
Brits exposure boosts UK acts A
ANALYSIS Q1 Top 100 ARTIST ALBUMS
dele’s 21 celebrated its first birthday in Q1, but even this far into the campaign it still managed to find enough new buyers to
become the period’s biggest seller. The album sold a further 411,997 copies
between January and March, according to Official Chats Company data, as its cumulative total reached nearly 4.2 million to move it ahead of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon in fifth place on the all- time list. The XL album has remarkably been the top
artist seller in four of the past five quarters, only taking a break in the last period of 2011 when it was placed fourth behind albums from Michael Bublé, Coldplay and Rihanna. In this latest victory it finished 16.1% ahead in sales of closest rival Born To Die by Lana Del Rey, one of three albums in the quarter’s top five to be a debut release by a British act. Released like Del Rey’s Polydor album in the
quarter, Virgin act Emeli Sandé’s Our Version Of Events was the period’s third top artist seller after selling 350,697 copies. Just below it, Ed Sheeran’s first Asylum/Atlantic
album + added nearly 300,000 sales to its tally as it surpassed 1 million sales overall during Q1, thanks in part to his exposure as a performer and winner at the Brits. In fact, five of the quarter’s 10 top albums were
helped by a performance at the February 21 ceremony at London’s O2 arena. They were led by Adele, whose double win and performance of Rolling In The Deep followed days after she took home six Grammys and sung the same song at the LA ceremony, but the list also included Sheeran, Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Olly Murs. Like +, Coldplay’s fifth Parlophone album Mylo
Xyloto sold its one-millionth copy in the quarter as it finished in fifth place with 200,849 sales, while Mars’ Elektra/Atlantic album Doo-Wops & Hooligans was sixth and Murs’ second Epic set In Case You Didn’t Know 10th. That album just squeezed past the cumulative sales of Murs’ self- titled first set by the end of the quarter, having
Q1 TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS SALES BY CHART POSITION IN LAST 5 YEARS 2m 2012 1.5m 1m 0.5m 0
2011 2010 2009 2008 2007
This chart represents sales achieved position by position on quarter-end Top 100 albums chart each year
Q1 2011 TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY NATIONALITY
UK 52% US 33% Europe 6% Other 7% Multi-nationality 2%
10 20 30 40 50 Position 60 70 80 90 100
seventh on the quarter-end chart. Its sales were just ahead of Island/Lava’s now-year-old Jessie J album Who You Are and Decca act Military Wives’ introductory set In My Dreams in eighth and ninth places. Just three releases had led the weekly artist
albums chart during the first quarter of 2011 when Adele’s 21 ruled for 11 out of the 13 weeks, but a year later the turnaround was much quicker with eight different albums taking charge. Only Adele’s album and those from Ed Sheeran,
Lana Del Rey and Emeli Sande managed more than seven days at the top, while 21’s three-week run was the longest, taking its overall length of stay at number one to appropriately 21 weeks, the longest since Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water during 1970 and 1971.
Q1 2012 TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY GENRE
ABOVE Brits best: Olly Murs was one of a clutch of artists tro benefit from exposure at the Brit Awards
shifted 725,989 copies in total compared to 725,521 for its predecessor. Three other Brits performers were also among
the quarter’s 20 top artist sellers, including Noel Gallagher whose Sour Mash-issued Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds sold another 123,550 copies in the period to take its cumulative total up to 615,971 by quarter end, around 4,500 copies short of what Oasis’s last studio album Dig Out Your Soul achieved in the UK. Murs’ Brits partners Rizzle Kicks capitalised on
the long Top 10 run of their single Mama Do The Hump to finish 14th with Stereo Typical, while fellow Island act Florence + The Machine followed a Brits performance with Ceremonials ranking 15th for the quarter and just a few thousand sales short of selling 500,000 copies overall. Released back last August, Positiva/Virgin act
David Guetta’s Nothing But The Beat had its best quarter yet as the chart-topping single Titanium helped it along to another 153,958 sales and
Pop 38% Rock 26% Contemporary Urban 18% MOR/Easy Listening 5% Dance 4% Folk 2% Country 2% Others 5%
Q1 2011 TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY GENRE
Pop 39% Rock 27% Contemporary Urban 17% MOR/Easy Listening 6% Dance 2% Folk 2% Blues 2% Others 5%
www.musicweek.com
Q1 2012 TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY NATIONALITY
UK 53% US 34% Rest Of Europe 5% Rest Of World 8%
Sales
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