1 billionth singles download is sold in the UK!

09/04/2013

 

 

By Daniel Lane

 

Adele, Maroon 5 and Gotye lead the way as 1 Billionth singles download is sold in the UK.

 

The music industry today celebrates a major milestone in its digital evolution, with the total number of digital singles sold in the UK hitting one billion – according to data tracked by the Official Charts Company.

 

The 1 billion landmark was reached yesterday evening (Monday), nine years after legal downloads launched in the UK. This period has seen a revolution in music consumption for music fans, artists, record labels and digital services alike.

 

Adele’s Someone Like You was also confirmed as the most downloaded single of all time by the Official Charts Company, followed closely by Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 FT Christina Aguilera, and Gotye FT Kimbra’s Somebody That I Used To Know.

 

The full Official All-time Download Chart Top 20 (compiled by the Official Charts Company) is outlined below.

 

1 SOMEONE LIKE YOU - ADELE - 1.46m

2 MOVES LIKE JAGGER - MAROON 5 FT CHRISTINA AGUILERA - 1.40m

3 SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW - GOTYE FT KIMBRA - 1.38m

4 I GOTTA FEELING - BLACK EYED PEAS - 1.34m

5 WE FOUND LOVE - RIHANNA FT CALVIN HARRIS - 1.27m

6 SEX ON FIRE - KINGS OF LEON - 1.24m

7 CALL ME MAYBE - CARLY RAE JEPSEN - 1.21m

8 PARTY ROCK ANTHEM - LMFAO/LAUREN BENNETT/GOONROCK - 1.19m

9 JUST THE WAY YOU ARE - BRUNO MARS - 1.18m

10 PRICE TAG - JESSIE J FT BOB - 1.13m

11 LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE - EMINEM FT RIHANNA - 1.12m

12 POKER FACE - LADY GAGA - 1.11m

13 GANGNAM STYLE - PSY - 1.09m

14 ONLY GIRL (IN THE WORLD) - RIHANNA - 1.07m

15 TITANIUM - DAVID GUETTA FT SIA - 1.04m

16 WE ARE YOUNG - FUN FT JANELLE MONAE - 1.03m

17 THE A TEAM - ED SHEERAN - 997k

18 USE SOMEBODY - KINGS OF LEON - 990k

19 GIVE ME EVERYTHING - PITBULL/NE-YO/AFROJACK/NAYER - 974k

20 IMPOSSIBLE - JAMES ARTHUR - 973k

© 2013 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

At a typical three-and-a-half minutes per track, it would take 6,659 years to listen to all one billion singles downloads played back-to-back – you would have had to start listening in 4646BC to have finished by today.

 

Since UK digital downloading took off in 2004, sales have exploded from around 500,000 sales a week to more than 3 million a week. 2012 took singles sales to new heights with 188.6 million tracks sold, beating 2011's record-breaking total by a further 6%. In 2013, sales continue to surge - in the first three months of the year, UK music fans have been snapping up an average 500,000 single tracks every day.

 

The 1 billion total is made up from all sales to UK-based consumers of singles downloads, as defined by the UK music industry. This does not include full digital album downloads or streams, but does include individual tracks unbundled from digital albums. The data is drawn from returns delivered to the Official Charts Company by 50 digital retailers since the beginning of 2004.

 

Kim Bayley, Director General of the Entertainment Retailers Association, says, “UK music fans benefit from having probably the greatest choice of digital music services anywhere in the world. Digital music stores offer virtually unlimited range, access from pretty much anywhere on the planet and of course they never close. To hit one billion download sales is an incredible milestone and a testament to the ingenuity and investment and belief of a new generation of retailers who set out to create an entirely new music buying experience. ”

 

Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, adds, "The digital music revolution has made it easy to buy any song you like, instantly, for half the price of a coffee. As fans increasingly download music on the move, tablets, smartphones and connected cars will drive another phase in digital music’s expansion.”

 

Official Charts Company managing director Martin Talbot also welcomes the news: “The explosion in download sales over the past nine years means we are genuinely now living in the digital music age – with Adele as our queen! Over the nine years of legitimate digital music, more than 16 new tracks have sold 1 million copies, which emphasises just how popular digital music is in the modern age.”

 

OCC article - 1 billionth singles download is sold in the UK!

Edited April 9, 201312 yr by jackph89

Would have been nice for them to say what the billionth sale was! Although they have given us sales for once, so maybe it's asking a bit too much.

Woah, The A Team and Use Somebody are weeks away from a million :o

 

Shame they didn't mention what the billionth sold track was!

I was surprised that Lady Gaga - Bad Romance wasn't on the list! Did it have a CD single?

I was surprised that Lady Gaga - Bad Romance wasn't on the list! Did it have a CD single?

 

Yep, I own it! Probably only sold about 50-100k physicals but still enough for it not to feature in the download top 20 I guess...

Thanks for posting this, the million sellers thread topic needs revising a tad, I don't have the time at the moment.

Woah, The A Team and Use Somebody are weeks away from a million :o

 

I knew TAT was very close, but not that US was that close!

 

I was surprised that Lady Gaga - Bad Romance wasn't on the list! Did it have a CD single?

 

Even so, it can't be far off...

Thanks for posting this, the million sellers thread topic needs revising a tad, I don't have the time at the moment.

 

Not a problem at all, I checked BJ to see if someone had posted it and no one had yet :P

Woah, The A Team and Use Somebody are weeks away from a million :o

 

Shame they didn't mention what the billionth sold track was!

It is a shame, would be interesting to know but I'm guessing they don't know it either. They've got the numbers which store sold how many a day but not what time precisely.

Oh finally a figure for 'Use Somebody'! I had a feeling it was getting very close to the million. Should only be a couple more months now. Ed Sheeran probably only a few weeks away too :D

Would have been nice for them to say what the billionth sale was! Although they have given us sales for once, so maybe it's asking a bit too much.

 

I'm not sure if they would be able to tell what the actual billionth sale was, would they? Does their data go down to that level of granularity?

Yeah, at the rate transactions happen at the various stores, I'm not sure it'd be possible to tell what the exact billionth was. And it'd probably depend on which credit card company's server was fastest.