CD format turns 30 today - ABBA Gold is UK's best-seller

Source: MW

Rhian Jones

 

 

One of the record industry's best and most lucrative friends, the CD format, turns 30 today - three decades after the world's first CD players were announced in Japan on October 1, 1982.

 

ABBA’s greatest hits collection is No.1 in the Official All-Time CD Album Top 30 sellers according to new BPI figures, compiled by the Official Charts Company.

 

Leading the list with 4 million sales in the format, the record is the UK’s biggest selling Compact Disc of all time. In second place is Adele’s 21, which clocks up more than 3.5 million CD sales to date.

 

At No.3 is Oasis’ second album What’s The Story Morning Glory?, released in 1995, with 3.4 million CD sales.

 

Only two artists have more than one title in the Top 30. Coldplay’s first three albums – Parachutes (No.21), A Rush Of Blood To The Head (No.13) and X&Y (No.19) all make the top 30, along with Robbie Williams whose three albums I’ve Been Expecting You, Sing When You’re Winning and Greatest Hits, chart at 25, 26, and 27 respectively.

 

UK artists take 21 of the Top 30 spots and eight in the Top 10. Only four ‘Best Of’ compilations appear in the Top 30.

 

No general compilations feature in the top 30 at all, where sales tend to be focussed on much shorter time periods. Whilst digital downloads accounts for greater than average sales of the Rock, Urban and Dance genres, CD is today still overwhelmingly the preferred music format for Blues (78.2%) and Classical (77.7%).

 

Now 44 is the biggest-selling compilation CD, appearing at No.102 with 1.4million copies sold.

Happy Birthday to CD, and well done ABBA, although they'll be beaten in less than a year by Adele.

So, Now 44 must have sold .8 million on cassette....and er..... minidisc.

Happy Birthday to CD, and well done ABBA, although they'll be beaten in less than a year by Adele.

 

It's not that Abba will sell zero copies either... But you're probably right.

Bloody hell, so Oasis sold more vinyl and tapes than Adele has sold downloads? (ignoring that Morning Glory is still a download seller itself, but not a massive one)

I'm not that surprised. Tapes were still decent sellers.in the late 90s.

That is interesting about Morning Glory although i'd think it'll have a good wee download total by now. It's a Classic and they've had other stuff out in the download era to stimulate interest in their back catalogue.

 

Interesting to note this means Adele has not sold 1mil downloads of 21 yet and must be nearly 80% of sales still physical which I think is a higher proportion than average these days, especially for a "newer" artist.

 

I always think of Adele as a typical kind of supermarket seller but whenever I'm in the local Asda or Tesco she's always below 40 and usually sitting at the 50-70 mark (though they only put out about 3 copies at a time and there are often none left) in their chart so thought maybe digital made that up. Apparently not, it's a conundrum!

 

I don't see her overtaking Abba anytime soon unless she deluxe or promotes in some way again. She's selling around 5k a week at present. Assuming she kept that up the whole of next year that would only be half of what she needs and Abba aren't going to sell nothing (obviously she still has Xmas to go though). She's also unlikely to keep that level of sales up for that long.

 

Ps - Hooray for CDs, long may they prosper!

Edited October 3, 201212 yr by spicefunk

'21' is still by far the 'all-time' #1 download album even with a higher than normal physical %.

'21' is still by far the 'all-time' #1 download album even with a higher than normal physical %.

I know! Last I saw the list no other album had shifted 400k though some of the big selling releases of last year may be over that now (Ed Sheeran can't be far)

The Immaculate Collection, by Madonna, is in 31st place - as these replies, on The OCC Site, show:,

 

Official UK Charts

 

Hi Nikita Bukin , Madonna's Immaculate Collection is at Number 31 in the UK's all-time biggest selling CDs list. As you will see in the article's notes, the artist totals are based on those CDs that appear in the Top 30 only, not entire career totals. For example the Robbie Williams's figure is the sum of his 3 CDs in the Top 30, not all CDs sold across his career. So yes, Madonna has had some fantastic CD sales here in the UK, she just narrowly missed out on a placing in the all-time best sellers list.

 

Official UK Charts

 

Hi Kristofer Fredriksson, Madonna's Immaculate Collection would be at Number 31 in this list if it extended beyond a Top 30. As Immaculate Collection was released in 1990, a slightly higher proportion of its sales will have been on cassette and vinyl, hence why it is a little lower in this list than people might have expected.