ADELE’S 30 has been named the best-selling album of 2021 despite only being on sale for six weeks of it after fans rushed to buy physical copies of the long-awaited LP.
Eight out of 10 purchases of the 33-year old’s fourth album made in December following its November release were tangible vinyl, CD or cassette copies, in the wake of impressive first-week chart sales totalling 262,000.
The singer managed to beat the global vinyl shortage triggered by the scarcity of PVC to manufacture 500,000 copies of the record in November, although it was pipped to the year’s best-selling vinyl album title by ABBA’s Voyage, according to data from the BPI.
People in the UK streamed the equivalent of 132m albums via more than 147bn individual audio streams throughout 2021, a 5.7 per cent rise on 2020, while overall music consumption rose by 2.5 per cent.
While streaming accounts for 83 per cent of this consumption, vinyl experienced its highest sales in three decades – equating to 5.3m LPs purchased in spite of the shortage and a 14th consecutive year of growth.
British stars made up the majority of the year’s top 10 best-selling albums, consisting of the likes of Ed Sheeran, rapper Dave, Dua Lipa and Elton John joined by Sweden’s ABBA and the US’ Olivia Rodrigo and old favourites Queen and Fleetwood Mac.