From Music Week:

 

Lewis Capaldi has secured the biggest album of 2020 with the biggest album of 2019.

 

Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (EMI) finished ahead of the pack last year with sales of 455,914, according to the Official Charts Company’s overall figures for 2020. With the 2019 sales of 640,893, the Scottish singer-songwriter has amassed 1,096,806 sales for his debut.

 

Harry Styles’ Fine Line (Columbia) was the second biggest album of 2020 (293,435 sales). The sophomore LP was released in December 2019, when it moved a further 69,643 copies. Watermelon Sugar was the 10th biggest single of last year.

 

Dua Lipa had the biggest-selling album released in 2020. Music Week’s Artist Of The Year moved 265,042 copies of Future Nostalgia (Warner Records). Lead single Don’t Start Now was the sixth best-selling single of 2020.

 

Each of those top three artists achieved nearly half a billion streams or more in the UK alone last year.

 

In the Top 10 biggest albums, eight were by British acts, including: Stormzy at No.5, with Heavy Is The Head (Atlantic/Merky) on 222,791 sales in 2020; Ed Sheeran at No.7 with No.6 Collaborations Project (Asylum/Atlantic) on 217,938 sales; Queen’s Greatest Hits (EMI) at No.8 on 193,496 sales; Elton John’s Diamonds (UMC) at No.9 on 189,752 sales; and Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years – Don’t Stop (Rhino) on 186,068 sales.

 

Fleetwood Mac also have the No.1 vinyl album of 2020 with Rumours (Rhino).

 

Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go (Polydor/Interscope) was the fourth biggest seller of 2020 (239,879 sales). Eilish was the highest ranked international artist.

 

The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights (Island/XO/Island) was the biggest single of 2020 (2,208,733 sales), followed by Dance Monkey by Tones & I (Parlophone) on 1,594,532.

 

Lady Gaga’s Chromatica (Polydor/Interscope) was the biggest cassette of last year.

Jubël being pushed out of the EOY top 100, we love to see it.

 

Wow this year was really devoid of successful debut albums if Joyner Lucas did enough to make the top 10... :lol: (also a weird coincidence that that list contains both a 'Heaven & Hell' and a 'Heaven Or Hell').

I think Lewis Capaldi is the first artist to have the best selling album two years running since Simply Red's Stars in 1991/1992

I think Lewis Capaldi is the first artist to have the best selling album two years running since Simply Red's Stars in 1991/1992

Adele says hello (it's me).

At the risk of sounding like an old grandad, that's got to be the worst EOY singles chart ever.

 

Blinding Lights, Head & Heart, Don't Start Now, Adore You and Midnight Sky stand out to me but beyond that, can't help feeling few of these songs are going to stand the test of time.

It’s very interesting that Ariana Grande’s positions didn’t make the T100 singles despite landing 6 weeks at no1. Also, her album is only no58.

positions must have been very close to making it. I think it’s only just shy of the 400k sales (approx) required to make the list. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to see it certified Gold (400k sales) this week

From OCC:

 

Cassette sales almost doubled in 2020 to their highest level in 17 years.

 

The unlikely revival of the humble cassette has been gathering pace since 2018, with sales steadily increasing as more artists release their latest albums on the retro format.

 

According to the end-of-year report by music industry body the BPI, sales were up 94.7% in 2020 compared to the previous year, with 156,542 cassettes sold in the UK – the highest total since 2003.

 

Sales on the format remain tiny in the context of the overall music market (around 0.2%), but the increase shows the cassette revival is far from over yet.

 

The UK's best-selling cassette of 2020 was Lady Gaga's Chromatica, which sold 14,000 copies on the format, according to Official Charts Company data. 8,600 of those were sold in its first week, when the record debuted at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart with impressive opening week chart sales of 53,000.

 

5 Seconds Of Summer's latest album CALM finished 2020 close behind Gaga with 13,000 cassette sales, while Yungblud's Weird - a chart-topper in December - is in third on 7,700 sales.

 

The popularity of cassettes appears not to be limited to one particular genre, instead favouring acts who have harnessed a fanbase of avid collectors: albums by The 1975, Kylie Minogue, Haim, The Streets, Gorillaz, Michael Ball & Alfie Boe and AC/DC all appear in the top sellers of 2020.

 

The rise in cassette sales also demonstratees the fan appeal of music in tangible formats as a complement to streaming, which rose to new record highs in 2020. Drew Hill, MD Proper Music Distribution, said: "As we celebrate this streaming boom, it’s important we also remember the ongoing fan demand for something tangible, and recognise that streaming and physical music coexist quite happily."

 

Official Top 40 best-selling cassettes of 2020

POS TITLE ARTIST

1 CHROMATICA LADY GAGA 14,000

2 CALM 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 13,000

3 WEIRD YUNGBLUD 7,700

4 NOTES ON A CONDITIONAL FORM 1975

5 THE ALBUM BLACKPINK

6 RARE SELENA GOMEZ

7 DISCO KYLIE MINOGUE

8 FUTURE NOSTALGIA DUA LIPA

9 WOMEN IN MUSIC - PT 3 HAIM

10 NONE OF US ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS LIFE STREETS

11 ALL DISTORTIONS ARE INTENTIONAL NECK DEEP

12 SONG MACHINE SEASON ONE - STRANGE TIMEZ GORILLAZ

13 WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS STEPS

14 TOGETHER AT CHRISTMAS MICHAEL BALL & ALFIE BOE

15 MUSIC PLAYED BY HUMANS GARY BARLOW

16 YOUNG DUMB THRILLS MCFLY

17 ORDINARY MAN OZZY OSBOURNE

18 BRIGHTEST BLUE ELLIE GOULDING

19 WALLS LOUIS TOMLINSON

20 DEEP DOWN HAPPY SPORTS TEAM

21 POSITIONS ARIANA GRANDE

22 A CELEBRATION OF ENDINGS BIFFY CLYRO

23 MAMA'S BOY LANY

24 NOTHING IS TRUE & EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE ENTER SHIKARI

25 DREAMLAND GLASS ANIMALS

26 CONFETTI LITTLE MIX

27 FAKE IT FLOWERS BEABADOOBEE

28 POWER UP AC/DC

29 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - AWESOME MIX 1 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

30 LIVE AROUND THE WORLD QUEEN & ADAM LAMBERT

31 ZEROS DECLAN MCKENNA

32 DEDICATED - SIDE B CARLY RAE JEPSEN

33 FOOLISH LOVING SPACES BLOSSOMS

34 ENERGY DISCLOSURE

35 OPEN UP YOUR HEAD SEA GIRLS

36 WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY OASIS

37 THE NEON ERASURE

38 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - AWESOME MIX 2 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

39 SEX DEATH & THE INFINITE VOID CREEPER

40 JUNK FOOD EASY LIFE

©2021 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/c...evealed__32058/

It’s very interesting that Ariana Grande’s positions didn’t make the T100 singles despite landing 6 weeks at no1. Also, her album is only no58.

It was released too late in the year - the singles list is always skewed towards the earlier months of the year. That and 'Sweet Melody' feel like glaring omissions.

 

Both will probably end up high for the 2021 list instead :lol: :')

Incredible that more than 10% of Chromatica's sales were on cassette. It seems an awfully inconvenient format to me! :D

Cassette sales overall are still very low.

Edited January 5, 20214 yr by ben08

Cassette sales overall are still very low.

 

156.5k sold, 99% of which will probably never be played, seems like a huge number.

It is annoying how every year we see these articles on vinyl and cassettes breaking records and focusing on the decline of CDs - even though they still outsell both. In fact there were 100x CDs bought than cassettes last year, but they're acting like nobody buys them and everyone is switching back to tapes.

I don't think they're implying that, the article posted just now doesn't even mention CD sales and explicitly says that cassette sales are still tiny. It's just interesting to note that these formats that used to be seemingly going obsolete (or arguably already did go entirely obsolete in the case of cassettes) are managing to make a comeback and consistently become more and more relevant again each year, even if only as collector's items.

Quite impressive that Chromatica managed to sell 5,400 cassettes after the first week on sale! A lot of these cassettes albums achieve their sales almost entirely in the first week.

 

I own these...

 

1 CHROMATICA LADY GAGA [Pink cassette]

7 DISCO KYLIE MINOGUE [1. Standard track list, blue cassette | 2. Standard track list, clear cassette | 3. Deluxe track list, blue double cassette]

8 FUTURE NOSTALGIA DUA LIPA [blue cassette]

13 WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS STEPS [Group cover artwork, clear cassette]

21 POSITIONS ARIANA GRANDE [Frosted ice white cassette]

32 DEDICATED - SIDE B CARLY RAE JEPSEN [1. Grey cassette | 2. Florescent purple cassette]

 

Other than those, I bought:

 

Louise - Heavy Love [standard track list, silver glitter cassette]

Melanie C - Melanie C

^ Do you actually play those cassettes or did you buy them as collector's items?

Primarily as collectors items, and also to feel like I'm giving some extra support to these artists!

 

Cassettes do have nostalgic appeal for me, because they were my first format as a child in the 90s... but I wouldn't choose to play them! :kink: The audio quality isn't usually great and I would be worried about a cassette player "eating" the tape and ruining the item.

The audio quality isn't usually great and I would be worried about a cassette player "eating" the tape and ruining the item.

 

oh yes it happened for me many times. But I don't think the music quality is bad, especially now, when you have better headphones than those you had in 90s. Try and check :cheer:

Edited January 5, 20214 yr by jszmiles

On the singles EOY, I'd actually say the first song down that I'm not keen on would be Own It at #9. Can't remember the last year where I really liked all the songs in the top 8 - there's usually been at least one big-selling hit I never got into like I Don't Care, God's Plan, or going back to when the X Factor winner's song always used to finish up there. As for it not being representative of the year, if you think instead of the songs that made their biggest chart impact between Oct 2019 and Sep 2020 (so shifted back by 3 months), it's probably truer to that than to what charted highest in the calendar year.

Do we know the sales of the rest of the top 40 singles? Feels weird that there's such little bit of info...