Robbie

I use Polyhex the most but I do find myself occasionally using everyhit.com, especially when looking up a list of number 1 hits (obviously pre-2011) or a list of the biggest hits by month (again, pre-2011). It was quite strange how the site owner just suddenly stopped updating the site in January 2011 when he had maintained it every week for years. When asked a couple of years later, he did say he would update the site at some stage but that he was currently too busy to do so. I guess he still is too busy (the site owner is Dean Jackson, who, among doing many other things, presents a music programme on a Saturday evening on some BBC local radio stations).

Ahead of Record Store Day, physical sales surge in Q1 as UK artists make a chart impact by Andre Paine April 1st 2025 Physical music sales have surged in Q1 for 2025, Music Week can reveal. The results come ahead of Record Store Day this month, which has traditionally delivered a huge boost for physical music early in the second quarter of the year. Sam Fender, who is the Record Store Day UK ambassador, had the biggest-selling physical release in Q1 with People Watching (Polydor). The UK singer-songwriter moved 103,101 physical units of his third album (142,419 units in total). People Watching is the biggest album of Q1 among titles released in 2025. It is No.2 overall behind fellow Polydor artist Sabrina Carpenter’s 2024 LP Short N’ Sweet (196,059 units in 2025 – 596,016 in total). There were also strong Q1 results in the albums rankings for UK acts Ed Sheeran, Central Cee, Elton John and Charli XCX, while Lola Young had the biggest single of the quarter with Messy (see below). According to BPI figures based on Official Charts Company data, overall music consumption combining all formats (Album Equivalent Sales – AES), was up 6.2% year-on-year in Q1. That compares to growth of 10.0% in the first quarter of 2024. Vinyl was the star performer in Q1 of 2025 with an increase in consumption of 15.4% to 1,702,360 units – an improvement even on the 11.5% growth for the format in the first quarter of 2024. “Physical’s performance was welcome, with vinyl giving a particularly strong account of itself, and CD continuing its trend of only slightly being down on the year,” said BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist. “ We’re often asked when demand for vinyl might start to slow, but, for now at least, it keeps defying such expectations, and this Q1 it was given a timely boost by a number of artists enjoying marked success on the format, including a returning Sam Fender, who was one of the stars of the BRIT Awards. We know that this year’s BRITs, with its accent on rising talent, also helped to generate Official Albums Chart uplifts for the performing artists and award winners.” It follows the full year figures for 2024, which showed that vinyl unit sales increased by 9.1% to 6.7 million units – the 17th consecutive year of growth. That almost coincides with the launch of Record Store Day in 2007. “The indie retailers who launched it should be applauded for what they have done,” said RSD coordinator Megan Ogleby-Page, head of operations at the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) in the latest edition of Music Week. “They put vinyl back on the map at a time when it was forgotten.” With CD sales down slightly year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 (-2.6%), overall physical sales managed an substantial increase of 5.7% (4,112,208 units) compared to 2.4% a year earlier. 2024 was the first year in two decades when overall physical sales (vinyl, CD, cassette and others) registered year-on-year growth – although that was a mere 1.4%. Cassette sales were up 204.7% in Q1 of 2025, although with 63,288 units it remains a niche format. Streaming growth slows in 2025 Based on the BPI/OCC data, streaming consumption (streaming equivalent albums) increased by 6.6% year-on-year in Q1 2025. While that represents solid growth it’s well down on the 11.3% increase in the first quarter of 2024. The slide in streaming growth (units) in Q1 comes amid alarm calls about the slowdown in streaming revenue increases. IFPI’s Global Music Report showed streaming revenue growth dipping below double-digits in 2024. Meanwhile, MIDiA’s recent report underlined the maturing of key markets in relation to streaming with figures suggesting that lower value emerging markets are now driving music subscriptions globally. As a result, labels will be keen to drive the superfan agenda with potential higher value tiers on DSPs. UK artists on the rise in 2025 After a challenging 2024 for UK talent on the singles chart, things are looking up this year. Lola Young’s global smash Messy (Island) dominated in Q1 of 2025 in the UK with 596,657 units this year (and 775,343 units to date). Messy spent four weeks at the summit in January and February and continues to occupy a Top 20 position. But for chart rules on ACR which penalise older songs in decline, Lola Young’s hit would still be in the Top 3. Lola Young was not alone among UK acts making a singles chart impact in Q1. The Days (Polydor) by Chrystal is the other track by a UK act to make the overall Top (No.5, 374,901 units in 2025 – 532,770 in total to date). RCA-signed Myles Smith actually has two hits in the overall Top 40 for the quarter – Nice To Meet You (No.19, 250,766 units in 2025 – and 361,806 units in total to date) and Stargazing (No.22, 241,549 units in 2025 – and 1,254,248 in total to date). Elsewhere, BRITs-nominated Sonny Fodera – a UK-based Australian DJ – made No.29 overall with Irish dance star Jazzy and UK DJ DOD on Somedays (216,263 units in 2025 – 686,276 in total to date), released in partnership with ADA. Another dance smash, Kisses (Atlantic) by Bl3ss, CamrinWatsin & Bbyclose, is at No.38 (179,844 units in 2025 – 831,685 in total to date). Sam Fender’s album title track People Watching is at No.33 overall in Q1 (198,962 units). Lola Young is so far the only UK artist to hit No.1 in 2025 – but her four-week spell at the top is not far off the six weeks at the summit for UK acts in the whole of 2024. Only one UK-only new single release made No.1 last year – Backbone by Chase & Status and Stormzy. Charli XCX was the first UK act to hit No.1 in 2024 with Guess (feat. Billie Eilish) – but that didn’t happen until August. Wham! also had their customary No.1 with Last Christmas. In the overall albums Top 10 for Q1 of 2025, in addition to success for UK artists Sam Fender, there were appearances from Ed Sheeran’s + - = Divide X - Tour Collection (Atlantic) at No.3 (105,660 units in 2025); Central Cee’s Can’t Rush Greatness (Columbia) at No.6 (94,636 units) and Elton John’s perennial Diamonds (Island EMI/UMR) at No.8 (85,587 units in 2025). Diamonds hit No.1 for the first time in Q1 – more than seven years on from its first release – and is now on total consumption to date of 1,739,445. Anglo-American legends Fleetwood Mac’s 50 Years – Don’t Stop (Rhino) remains in the Top 10 for Q1 (80,554 sales this year). Following her BRITs triumph, Charli XCX continued to stream well in Q1 with No.1 album Brat (Atlantic), which was just outside the overall Top 10 (No.12, 75,516 units in 2025 – 364,505 units in total to date). from musicweek.com

Five key findings from ERA's annual numbers on the recorded music retail marketby Andre Paine March 5th 2025 at 7:05AM Digital entertainment and retail association ERA has published its 25th anniversary edition of the ERA Yearbook. The Yearbook gives a detailed readout on the recorded music sales data for 2024 first revealed in its preliminary results announcement in January (the final numbers are within 0.01% of that preliminary figure). ERA CEO Kim Bayley said: “The ERA Yearbook has over the past 25 years become an eagerly awaited reference work, and we are rightly proud of the achievements of our research and insight team led by Luke Butler which draws on data from at least six different providers to produce this definitive picture of the entertainment market.” Here, Music Week breaks down some of the key findings in the ERA numbers… Entertainment market nearly three times larger since 2000 – but music lags behind A review of ERA’s first Yearbook published in 2000, including data for 1999 (see below), shows the dramatic changes in a sector In those days, the entertainment market was 100% physical, driven by the CD, the DVD and the console game disc. The combined music video and games sectors, which were worth £4.15 billion in 1999 reached £12.01 billion in 2024, nearly three times as much. The fastest growing sector over the period was games which was nearly six times as large in 2024 as it was in 1999. However, music growth over the same period is just 16.8%, which amounts to a significant decline in real terms. While recorded music revenue has grown for 11 consecutive years, several years of decline (due to piracy and the physical slump) prior to that have left their mark in the latest figures. Kim Bayley said: “These numbers are a stark reminder of the work done by ERA’s digital and streaming members to provide a safe, attractive and modern alternative to the pirate services which dealt such a deadly blow to physical formats in the early 2000s. The fact that these new legal services committed to paying creators for their work now account for 93.2% of entertainment industry revenues is a measure of the positive benefits they have brought to fans and creators alike.” New release versus catalogue In its global vinyl rankings, IFPI recently noted the impact of new releases by pop artists including Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Charli XCX. In the UK, those five artists made the Top 10 vinyl rankings for the year along with new releases from Fontaines DC, Coldplay and The Cure – leaving just two catalogue classics in the Top 10 from Oasis and Fleetwood Mac. On the fact of it, then, frontline releases would appear to be making inroads on vinyl. But while it’s true that new titles are performing well – up 8.9% in unit terms to 2.5m and 10.1% in value to £73.6m – catalogue is still gaining ground. Despite that Top 10 result with just two catalogue titles, for the overall market the share is 64.2% in unit terms, compared to 35.8% for new releases. Catalogue’s year-on-year increase on vinyl was 9.2%, slightly ahead of new releases. The share of the market for new releases has been stable for the last two years, though it was higher in 2022 at 38.5%. But as ERA notes in its Year Book, vinyl is “becoming a key component of artist release strategy and sales of new titles remain strong”. Spotify leads the way with more than three quarters of music streamers Spotify doesn’t break down its UK streaming numbers – although the streaming giant does issue numbers about its payments to the British music industry. However, ERA does have a panel of 1,000 nationally representative consumers (Fly Research Tracker), which underlines the reach of Spotify. The ERA panel shows that, among music streamers, 76.1% use Spotify (covering both subscription and freemium). Amazon Music (including the limited Prime Music bundled with Prime subscriptions) is in second place on 32.5%, followed by YouTube Music on 26.4% and Apple Music on 22.9%. Subscription streaming – which now accounts for 85% of the recorded music market – is the choice of 82.7% of under-25s compared to 49.9% for the total panel. Subscription vs freemium Music labels have, understandably, never been that keen on the ad-funded model for streaming, even where it might act as a funnel for subscriptions. According to ERA/BPI estimates, consumer spending on music streaming subscriptions surged through the £2bn mark for the first time ever in 2024, a 7.8% rise from 2023, accounting for 84.5% of the total market value. But consumption on free services is growing at a slightly faster rate. According to Official Charts figures, 171.3bn premium streams were delivered across paid-for subscription tiers such as Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube Music in the UK last year. This marked an 11% increase year-on-year, accounting for 81% of total streams volume. Just over 40.2bn streams were recorded across ad-funded, free tiers, up 11.8%, representing 19% of the total. Vinyl inflation is over for now – and CD shows its value The vinyl market increased again in 2024 – up 10.5% to £196m and, in unit terms, up 9.1% to 7.1m. While the greater increase in value compared to units is explained by price rises, the inflationary pressure on vinyl LPs eased off last year. Compared to average vinyl price increases of 5.3% (£1.39 in 2023), last year the price rise amounted to just 1.3% (36p). The average vinyl LP now costs £27.76. Nevertheless, fans of the CD can now point to the value that the format offers to music consumers compared to vinyl. The average vinyl LP was £16.34 more expensive than the average paid for a CD album in 2024. CD albums are sold at prices that feel reminiscent of the 1990s: the average price is £11.42, a 3% year-on-year increase. Click here to read the ERA market figures for 2024 covering streaming and physical music. from musicweek.com

The new Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) yearbook has just been published. The 112 page booklet is available to download for free. The key points are covered in a Music Week article, which I've posted below. To download or read the booklet: www.eraltd.org/yearbook Included in the booklet are sections covering music, video and games. There's a large number of statistics covering physical and digital sales in 2024 and the top 20 best singles and albums of 2024, including sales. Sales for the top 20 albums are broken down by physical, download and streaming sales (page 85).

About 260,000 in 1978 and 1979 and 22,000 on two re-releases in the 1980s, a total of 282,000. Overall total with physical sales, downloads and streams is over 2 million units / sales.

Lonnie Donegan - My Old Man's A Dustman (#1, 1960)

It's one of those tracks that appears on multiple playlists so in a way it creates its own popularity by getting numerous streams, which keeps it on multiple playlists. I do wonder how many of its streams this year has been due to people actively seeking out the track.

There's been a bit of publicity / a news story about the BA30 recording (mainly negative due to Ed Sheeran's comments) so perhaps some people have sought out the track. It will have taken very few purchases on iTunes to get it to #48.

'All I Wanna Do' by Dannii Minogue musn't have sold / streamed much at all in the digital era as the record was only 20,000 copies short of Silver status based on its sales from 1997 (it's 1997 sales total was 179,822). Even if pre-1994 sales were included in the OCC sales database and could be added to post February 1994 sales totals, 'This Is It' would be far from being certified Silver as it's sales were only 110,000 during 1993. 'Who Do You Love Now (Stringer)' sold 133,470 in 2001 and 'I Begin To Wonder' sold about 100,000 in 2003.

In at #1 on 50k-75k sales. I can't believe someone voted for it to miss the top 100!

There's been no tied positions since Millward Brown took over chart compilation duties in 1994. If sales are tied to 2 decimal places, I'm sure they simply list tracks in alphabetical order. The one instance that sticks out is when The Beatles catalogue was made available to download at iTunes in November 2010. Alan Jones listed sales of each track that was inside the top 200 on the chart dated 27 November 2010. The sales listed included 118 Blackbird 2019 119 I Am The Walrus 2019 Both tracks had the same panel sales and all sales only came from iTunes. Unless there was another way that the titles could be separated, it looked as if it was simply an alphabetical listing.

It might not have been yourself but I'm sure it was!

I didn't know that the revised chart for 01/01/11 was different to that originally compiled and announced on Radio 1. I meant to add too, that the estimated sales were erroneously added because there were no physical sales for Christmas Day! The computer program which estimated sales for days where sales were missing had just been upgraded and it appears the programmers forgot about the fact that there would be little to no physical sales on Christmas Day. The 4 May 2002 chart was changed after a Dotmusic poster (acerben) contacted the OCC on the Sunday evening to point out 'One Step Too Far' was listed twice on the chart, which chart rules didn't allow. The OCC quickly updated the chart. One of the two entries was the import version and it was this version that was removed. It originally had been listed at #68. The revised chart was published too late for Music Week, which printed the original version of the chart (and got the title of the record wrong, listing it as 'One Stap Too Far').

It happened twice. 17 February 1976 (chart dated 21 February 1976): Radio 1 announced the new number 1 as 'Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez' by Manuel and the Music Of The Mountains. Then chart compiler BMRB realised there had been a major computer error and the chart was recompiled three hours later. The number 1 was then revealed to be 'December 1963' by the Four Seasons. The whole of the chart was affected by this error. 6 November 1979 (chart dated 10 November 1979): Radio 1 announced the new number 1 as being 'When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman' by Dr Hook. The previous number 1 had been 'One Day At A Time' by Lena Martell. Her record label (Pye Records) somehow noticed an error had been made and asked BMRB to rerun the chart. The following day BMRB revealed that the number 1 was still Lena Martell. Dr Hook did get to number 1 the following week. The error affected only numbers 1 and 2 (some of Lena Martell's sales were added in error to Dr Hook's sales).

4 March 1995 too, and for the same reason (missing information from one retailer, Woolworths i think) The 10 July 1999 chart was reran after sales information from Our Price was missed. The recompiled chart was never made public at the time, and it was never intended to be made public, but is now online at the OCC website. The 11 November 1989 chart as broadcast on Radio 1 was sales to the Friday only. A full chart couldn't be compiled in time due to a fire at Millward Brown's offices on the Sunday. The OCC has the revised chart. The 1 January 2011 charts were reran due to a computer error which led to estimated sales of physical product being added due to a missing day of sales. It doesn't appear that any singles chart positions were affected though.