I'm sure I read in the Times that Drake - with his No1 very nearly beating Bryan Adams for weeks at the top - had only sold a total of 109,000 copies. Surely a mistake. In a week?

Total Sales to last Friday were 454,000. Audio Streams totaled 92,000,000.

Wet Wet Wet's Love Is All Around had sold 1,153,000 by the time it had reached the week it got knocked off the number 1.

Very interesting; so essentially sales have halved over the past 20 years. And of course they cost far less now; a download for 79p as against the price of over a pound for a vinyl single.

JK2006 wrote:
Very interesting; so essentially sales have halved over the past 20 years. And of course they cost far less now; a download for 79p as against the price of over a pound for a vinyl single.

Yes, but a physical single had manufacturing and distribution costs. A 7" single retailed at £1.99 including 17.5% VAT in 1995.

It appears that the lack of a music video improved the chart performance of Drake's One Dance as people had to stream the audio. It appears that streamed video does not count towards chart performance in the UK.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36884930/...ithout-a-music-video

Of course, no retailers any more. No packaging. And sadly no creative respect. Not only for the artistes, writers, producers, arrangers but for the army needed to bring music to your ears and heart. These days - in superficial world - nobody cares. "Oh I love that" means "I quite like that". Onto the next. Lemmings.

JK2006 wrote:
Of course, no retailers any more. No packaging. And sadly no creative respect. Not only for the artistes, writers, producers, arrangers but for the army needed to bring music to your ears and heart. These days - in superficial world - nobody cares. "Oh I love that" means "I quite like that". Onto the next. Lemmings.

Regrettably, you're right. Music is now so disposable and very few songs actually create any lasting impressions on your life. I'm not even sure the vinyl revival has any meaning - especially when research suggests around 50% of new vinyl purchases are never actually played.

My Record of the Year for 2016 (so far) is Once I Was Seven Years Old by Lukas Graham. My 2015 one was Shut Up And Dance. How many did they sell?

I know a silly girl who bought 100 copies of a Justin Bieber song to help keep it at No.1., and she says many of her 'Beliebers' friends did the same. Of course they were downloads so no worries about shelf space, and the price for downloads is less than the physicals. It's difficult to compare modern digital (no effort required) sales with the old physical sales. There have always been ways to manipulate chart positions. I remember the old 'chart shops' that were targeted by artists - with freebies etc - but I think chart positions mean even less now than they used to.

PaulB wrote:
I know a silly girl who bought 100 copies of a Justin Bieber song to help keep it at No.1., and she says many of her 'Beliebers' friends did the same. Of course they were downloads so no worries about shelf space, and the price for downloads is less than the physicals. It's difficult to compare modern digital (no effort required) sales with the old physical sales. There have always been ways to manipulate chart positions. I remember the old 'chart shops' that were targeted by artists - with freebies etc - but I think chart positions mean even less now than they used to.

100 downloads from, say I-Tunes, to the same user only counts as 1 sale, as the service recognise you already own the song. As you say, you know a "silly girl"!

JK2006 wrote:
My Record of the Year for 2016 (so far) is Once I Was Seven Years Old by Lukas Graham. My 2015 one was Shut Up And Dance. How many did they sell?
Seven Years has sold 1,350k to date. (600k downloads 75 million streams)
Shut Up has sold 1,056k to date. (502k downloads 55 million streams)

Both clearly real hits and looks like Lukas might actually have the biggest seller of the year as well as the best - first time that's happened in ages!

dixie wrote:
100 downloads from, say I-Tunes, to the same user only counts as 1 sale, as the service recognise you already own the song. As you say, you know a "silly girl"!

Yes, asking around I don't see how it's possible to get 100 copies on one account, so I think she must be exaggerating a bit. Maybe a copy on each of several digital shop accounts, but even then it seems a bit fanatical.

I'm stuck in time and still prefer vinyl where it's available, or CD then it's not.
I see Stone Roses were No.1 in the vinyl single chart last week.