U.K. album sales recorded a 21.9% volume increase on the previous week as themed compilations and new artist albums proved popular as gifts for Father’s Day (June 21).
The figures from trade body the BPI and the Official Charts Company revealed that compilation sales were up 43.5% week-on-week. Targeted Father’s Day releases included the EMI/Universal triple album “Dad Rocks!” and Universal’s themed triple-set, “Dad’s Jukebox,” featuring hits from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.
Compilations from artists including Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, George Harrison, Meat Loaf and Mike Oldfield helped raise overall artist sales 17.9% higher than the previous week.
“This Father’s Day boost to sales illustrates that the CD remains a great digital music product for which there is still strong demand, and which makes a perfectly priced gift for special occasions,” said BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor in a statement.
The year-on-year sales increase for albums was 5.4% by volume. However, sales last week were down 17.7% compared to Father’s Day 2008, which fell in a different week.
The BPI also issued data on digital albums showing that the format accounted for more that 15% of overall album sales in May, the highest market share for digital albums to date.
Overall, sales of digital music in May were up more than 60% compared with the previous year. In the singles market, almost 11.2 million tracks were downloaded during May 2009, 3.5 million more than in May 2008.
