The BPI have released the official sales data for 2011 and it makes interesting reading.

Adele’s “21″ was the biggest success of the year, the record sold 3.8m copies in 2011, the biggest ever in a calendar year and is now the biggest-selling British album of the 21st century!

Single sales are up 10% on last year, but album sales have dropped 5.6%. Physical sales of CD singles now account for just 0.6% of total singles sold, with just over 1m units being sold. Whereas it’s the opposite for album sales, with 76.1% of sales being physical units!

Here’s some of the headlines from BPI’s report:

Singles:

Total sales up 10%
177.9m singles sold
Only 1.1m were physical CD’s (0.6%)
Top 20 best selling singles of year shifted over 500k units

Albums:

Total sales down 5.6%
113.2m albums sold
76.1% of sales were physical CD’s (86.2m units)
Digital sales up 26.6%
Physical sales down 12.6%

 
Top 10 Singles of 2011:
1. Someone Like You – Adele
2. Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera
3. Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
4. Price Tag – Jessie J ft Bob Island
5. We Found Love – Rihanna ft Calvin Harris
6. Give Me Everything – Pitbull / Ne-Yo / Afrojack /
7. Grenade – Bruno Mars
8. The A Team – Ed Sheeran
9. Rolling In The Deep – Adele
10. On The Floor – Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull

Top 10 Albums of 2011:
1. 21 – Adele
2. Christmas – Michael Bublé
3. Doo-Wops & Hooligans – Bruno Mars
4. 19 – Adele
5. Mylo Xyloto – Coldplay
6. Loud – Rihanna
7. Born This Way – Lady Gaga
8. Who You Are – Jessie J
9. + – Ed Sheeran
10. Talk That Talk – Rihanna

All statistics provided by the BPI, the full report can be found HERE

About the Author

Nick

Music industry worker, R&B enthusiast, Tottenham Hotspur follower and Craig David's social networking wizard!

Comments (1):

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   GOOD MUSIC said:
   January 24, 2012 at 12:56 pm

   THE BRISTISH MAINLY LISTEN TO AMERICAN MUSIC (more than half of sales are from US artists) WHEREAS UK ARTISTS HARDLY REPRESENT 10% IN THE AMERICAN MUSIC MARKET! I BELIEVE UK ARTISTS ARE MUCH MORE TALENTED AND CREATIVE THAN THE US ARTISTS BUT IN BRITAIN PEOPLE WILL KEEP ON LISTENING TO BAD AMERICAN COMMERCIAL MUSIC …