2012 sales: Adele #1 2nd year in a row, Vinyl sales increased

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/arts/music/adele-had-top-selling-album-of-2012.html?ref=arts

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Adele Had Top Album of 2012

By BEN SISARIO

Published: January 3, 2013


Her album “21” [[XL/Columbia), released almost two years ago, was the top seller in 2012, as it was in 2011, marking the first time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991 that one album has reigned for two consecutive years. According to figures released Thursday “21” sold 4.4 million copies in the United States last year, after selling 5.8 million in 2011. Late last year “21” crossed the 10 million mark, becoming the 21st album to do so in the SoundScan era.

The second-biggest album of 2012 was Taylor Swift’s “Red” [[Big Machine), with 3.1 million sales. It is also the top album on the latest weekly Billboard album chart, compiled from sales in the week that included Christmas, selling 241,000 copies in that period.

The British boy band One Direction scored two slots in the year-end chart. “Up All Night,” released in March, reached No. 3 with 1.6 million sales; “Take Me Home,” from November, is No. 5 with 1.3 million. [[Both were released by Syco/Columbia.) The fourth-biggest album of the year — and the only rock title in the Top 10 — was Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” [[Glassnote), with almost 1.5 million copies sold.

The music industry had started off 2012 with a hopeful spring in its step, because it had seemingly broken a long losing streak for its most lucrative product — album sales. In 2011 — for only the second time in a decade — sales increased slightly [[1.3 percent), leading some to wonder whether things were finally turning around. But in 2012, despite big numbers for a few top acts, the industry’s familiar sales pattern returned: falling album sales, with the growth in downloads not enough to offset the rapid decline of the CD.

A total of 316 million albums were sold in 2012, down 4 percent for the year. Sales of CD’s were down by 13.5 percent, but full album downloads gained 14 percent, to a new high of 118 million. About 37 percent of albums are now bought digitally, while the CD continues to fade: its sales have declined 75 percent since 2000.

One number that keeps going up, however, is song downloads, which in 2012 increased by 5 percent to reach 1.3 billion. Each of the three most popular tracks last year reached the mainstream through paths that were once unorthodox but are increasingly becoming the norm.

No. 1 was “Somebody That I Used to Know” by the Belgian-Australian songwriter Gotye, which was downloaded 6.8 million times; Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” was second with 6.5 million; and Fun.’s “We Are Young” reached No. 3 with nearly 6 million. Gotye and Ms. Jepsen’s songs owed much of their success to clever videos that caught fire on social media. Fun.’s song was propelled by television, first in an episode of “Glee” and then in a commercial shown during the Super Bowl.

Another bright spot, albeit a small one, is the continuing popularity of vinyl albums, whose sales rose 18 percent to 4.6 million, the biggest that SoundScan has recorded since 1991. The top record was Jack White’s “Blunderbuss” [[Third Man/Columbia), which sold 34,000 copies, bumping the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” to No. 2 after a three-year run at the top.

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After the "Les Miserables" soundtrack album made a stunning jump this week from No. 33 to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, the set now has its sights set on No. 1.



Label sources suggest that the Republic Records soundtrack could sell over 100,000 by week's end on Sunday, Jan. 6. That could be enough to beat the current Billboard 200 champ: Taylor Swift's "Red." This past week, "Les Miserables" sold 136,000 at No. 2 and "Red" sold 241,000 at No. 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan.



Taylor Swift's 'Red,' 'Les Mis' Soundtrack Lead Billboard 200 Chart



Next week might only see one or two titles sell a 100,000 -- which is traditional in January. Every year, the month houses some of the slowest sales weeks for album sales, as so few new releases arrive to market.



The first major releases due this month will arrive on Jan. 8 when Black Veil Brides' "Wretched & Divine," Dropkick Murphys' "Signed and Sealed in Blood," Chris Tomlin's "Burning Lights" and the "Girls" TV soundtrack.