Defying streaming trends, the star has sold more than 600,000 copies of what he calls his "divorce album," 80% of which is on CD and vinyl. However, the total was well below the 800,000 copies of their previous album, 25 sold in its first week.

These differences show how the music industry has been dominated thanks to streaming by singles, who now account for 83% of consumption. Last year, the UK released a record 147 billion songs, 5.7% more than 2020.

Just ten years ago, in 2012, only 3.7 billion songs were broadcast throughout the year.

Ed Sheeran has the best-selling single of 2021, Bad Habits. American pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo has the second and third biggest songs with Good 4 U and Driver's License. The best five were with a solo artist for the first time since 2009 without an artist being represented.

Eight of the first ten albums were from British musicians. Ed Sheeran took second place with = (draw), and Abba took third place with a returning Voyage record, the best-selling vinyl of the year. Thanks to living streaming numbers, longtime favorites Queen, Fleetwood Mac, and Elton John hold their positions in the top 10.

The overall market for phonograms including physical and digital sales grew by 2.5% over the past year. However, CD sales fell to their lowest level in 33 years, with 14 million records sold.

But while record labels would be happy with the growth, especially in streaming, artists have concerns about how profits will be distributed. Audio stream in English. Audio streaming has grown over the years since 2012. The #BrokenRecord campaign launched to highlight streaming revenue distribution issues sparked a major parliamentary inquiry last year.