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Posted by: JCM20 Oct 7 2016, 11:44 PM

One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful is the UK's latest million-selling song
By Justin Myers

A lot can change in five years, and life has certainly moved pretty fast for the five original members of One Direction since they scored their first ever hit in 2011.

Five may have become four, but Niall, Louis, Liam, Harry and former member Zayn can all celebrate today with the news they've scored their first ever million-selling single thanks to What Makes You Beautiful.

MORE: See all the UK's million-selling singles

Two weeks ago saw the fifth anniversary of What Makes You Beautiful debuting at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, and now the song becomes only the 167th single in UK chart history to pass the seven-figure milestone.

What Makes You Beautiful was the first of four chart-toppers for One Direction. Zayn left the band in 2015, but the remaining four carried on to score their final Number 1 album and single, before going on hiatus in early 2016.

MORE: See all One Direction's UK hit singles and albums

Zayn scored a Number 1 with his first solo hit Pillowtalk and debut album Mind of Mine, while Niall became the first of the remaining four to release solo material, scoring a Top 10 with This Town this week.

One Direction's huge achievement sees them join artists like Michael Jackson, the Beatles, Adele, Elton John, Queen and Abba in the exclusive million-sellers' club.

This big sales milestone also makes an impact in the league table of successful X Factor stars.
Take a look at the biggest acts of The X Factor based on chart sales

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 8 2016, 12:21 PM

The only songs that will sell 1 million anymore are the trickle sellers that are already almost there

Posted by: liamk97 Oct 8 2016, 12:51 PM

I didn't actually realise they were that close. I had 980k in mind or 990k at a push.

Posted by: Doctor Blind Oct 8 2016, 01:05 PM

Yes, no million sellers (Sales) released since “Uptown Funk” which was in December 2014.

Songs that are almost there, but these are all pre-2014:

Coldplay “Paradise” (995k) - this does not include the ~119k ineligible sales that it recorded in 2011.
Frank Sinatra “My Way” (995k)
Michael Jackson “Billie Jean” (995k)
LMFAO “Sexy and I Know It” (995k)
Cee Lo Green “Fuck You” (990k)
Black Eyed Peas “Where Is The Love?” (990k)
George Harrison “My Sweet Lord” (990k)
Rod Stewart “Maggie May” (980k)
Nilsson “Without You” (980k)
Bruno Mars “Grenade” (980k)*
Eminem “Stan” (960k)
Labrinth ft. Emeli Sandé “Beneath Your Beautiful” (955k)
Labrinth ft. Tinie Tempah “Earthquake” (945k)
Bastille “Pompeii” (940k)

*hopefully an update with this in Music Week with his new single doing well?

Posted by: Ethan Oct 8 2016, 01:22 PM

rare?! the entire YTD top10 have already shifted over 1 million chart sales~

Posted by: Cameron Oct 8 2016, 01:23 PM

With streaming

Posted by: vidcapper Oct 8 2016, 01:37 PM

But since streaming is replacing paid-for sales, it makes no sense to exclude it from overall totals - after all, download sales aren't excluded from songs from the physical sales era...

Posted by: T Boy Oct 8 2016, 03:08 PM

It does make sense to exclude streaming from million sellers though. The idea of selling a million should be a rare thing that wows people not and every day run of the mill occurrence.

As for the YTD top 10 all shifting a million chart sales, I doubt half of them would have shifted a million of streaming and it's inflation of sales had never existed.

Posted by: Doctor Blind Oct 8 2016, 03:17 PM

Yes, although it does mean there will likely never be another million seller (apart from those who trickle sales from releases pre-2014)!

Posted by: Rafael x Oct 8 2016, 05:30 PM

kings, ofc

history is coming too -nah

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 8 2016, 09:50 PM

Or during 2014 - songs like Waves by Mr Probz and Ghost by Ella Henderson must be close

Posted by: liamk97 Oct 8 2016, 10:43 PM

Depends on what you consider close. Those are either at or around 900k but to gather up 100k in sales, and just trickle sales at that, is a hard task in today's sales market.

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 9 2016, 12:28 AM

Anything that's sold at least 900,000 I would consider "close"

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 9 2016, 12:31 AM

950k by June last year and 28k more just two months later, so I'm actually not surprised

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 9 2016, 12:38 AM

Your "Paradise" estimate is a little off - the OCC said 965,500 in February.

Posted by: rundmck Oct 9 2016, 01:06 AM

Hello by Adele was released less than a year ago, but I'm sure it must be very close to 900k paid for sales. It will surely be the last ever song (by release date) to sell 1 million copies

Posted by: vidcapper Oct 9 2016, 05:36 AM

I agree that selling 1m should be regarded as a exceptional accomplishment, but the current situation is not the fault of streaming per se, but of the overly generous conversion rate. 100-1 might have been a justifiable estimate initially, but experience has shown that it was in fact far too generous.

Posted by: N-S Oct 9 2016, 02:40 PM

I think the way to go will be to have two separate lists: one for songs that actually sold over a million copies and other for those who reach a million chart credits with streaming.

Posted by: cqmerqn Oct 9 2016, 02:52 PM

Does anyone know if Ellie is close to having a million seller?

LMLYD has obviously passed 1M but that's with streaming

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 9 2016, 03:30 PM

Burn and Your Song have around 800k each. I believe LMLYD may be a little more than that. HLWILY was one of the last songs to go platinum on sales alone so 700k would be a push for that one.

Posted by: JCM20 Oct 9 2016, 03:31 PM

Sexy and I Know It will get there eventually as well.

Posted by: cqmerqn Oct 9 2016, 03:39 PM

Thanks - is there anywhere I can look to get official sales only? I doubt it..

Hopefully LMLYD is at around 900k but that seems far too high

Posted by: Doctor Blind Oct 9 2016, 03:42 PM

Nowhere near, it had sold 755k up until the end of last year, and I doubt it has added more than a few tens of thousand since. 800k seems a fairly reasonable estimate.

Posted by: rundmck Oct 9 2016, 10:45 PM

Doctor Blind- I believe you estimated "Hello" to be ~845k back at the start of May... It's sold ~150k sales+streams since then, would you estimate it therefore to be over 900k pure sales by now?

Posted by: Sambuu-Yondon Oct 10 2016, 04:44 AM

Next Song : Paradise by Coldplay

Posted by: Doctor Blind Oct 10 2016, 06:11 AM

Yes, probably around 900k for “Hello” - it is selling around 800-850 downloads a week at the moment so looks unlikely to get to a million for a few years.

Incidentally the biggest selling single this year so far (Lukas Graham “7 Years”) is on 613,000 downloads, Drake is 2nd on 505,000.