At the same time last year physical album sales growth was negative at -0.3% and the whole of 2023 saw sales down 1.1% overall. If growth of physical records remains positive this year it will mean that 2024 will be the first year physical music sales have increased since 2004 when we saw a huge shift towards digital music and streaming. 2004 saw 163.4 million units being sold, showing how this trend towards streaming and digital music over the last two decades has affected physical music sales.

The overall consumption of music based on Album Equivalent Sales which combines all physical, digital and streaming, saw an increase of 9.8% in the first six months of the year rising to 98,548,427 units. Consumption of streaming equivalent albums alone increased by 11% to 87,974,752 units showing how streaming is still dominant within the market.

The vinyl boom of recent years has not yet been enough to drag the sales of physical albums into positive growth as the sale of CDs, which is still the dominant format in terms of units, has been seeing huge declines. However, this is on course to change in 2024 and this could be as a result of the emergence of vinyl collectors as well as initiatives such as Record Store Day, HMV Vinyl Week and National Album Day.

According to the half year figures Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ leads the way in physical sales so far this year with 254,241 units sold which has been a significant contribution to the increased physical album sales. As well as this, the other albums to make up the top 5 of physical album sales were ‘Swing Fever’ by Rod Stewart & Jools Holland with 48,540 sales, Liam Gallagher & John Squire’s self-titled album with 46,982, Billie Eilish’s ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ with 45, 434 sales and The Last Dinner Party’s debut album ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ with 42,352.

Vinyl was the driving force in the increase of physical sales in the first six months with sales of vinyl albums increasing 12.4% to 3,052,498 units. The growth of vinyl sales was up 13.3% in the second quarter of the year. CD sales were down 1.5% to 4,911,845 units in the first half of the year which, although shows a decline in sales, it actually marks a significant slowing of the decline of CD sales compared to recent years which has contributed to physical sales overall growth in the first six months of 2024. This could also potentially mean that there will be a CD revival as the decline in sales was even slower in the second quarter of the year at just 0.8%.

The growing interest in copies of physical music is also shown in the figures for the sales of singles with seven-inch vinyl sales being at their highest point in 15 years.

Butchart has owned Sound It Out Records since 1998, and in that time he has provided old and new vinyl, CD’s and music memorabilia to a large audience of music lovers. Sadly, after his passing in June, Tom Butchart’s wife Clare and the rest of the Sound It Out team have decided to close the shop, which was the last remaining record shop in the area of Teesside, Stockton-on-Tees.

On August 22nd, Clare Butchart released the following statement:

In addition to this, the Sound It Out staff issued a statement thanking the customers, saying that Sound It Out was “more than just a record shop”. They also took the time to thank Tom for the opportunity to work at Sound It Out and be “part of this music community legacy”.

Sound It Out Records stocked and sold music spanning from the 1950’s to present day, and featured a large variety of genres including Punk, Metal, Jazz, Techno, Hip Hop, Funk and much more. The store also provided a space for local DJ’s, as well as supporting local bands and artists by stocking music from all levels of release.

In 2010, Sound It Out Records was the subject of a documentary by Jeanie Finlay. The documentary focuses on how the market for independent music stores has been declining over recent years, and how Tom Butchart and his team strive to stay relevant and successful throughout this shift in how people get their music in today’s society. Finlay grew up only a few miles away from Sound It Out, and beautifully captures how the store is defying the odds and remaining successful through their stance and reputation in their local community.

You can watch the trailer for Jeanie Finlay’s documentary here.

Sound It Out Records have announced they will be using Vectis Auctions, a local auctioneering company, to sell the Sound It Out Records Collection in the coming months. Due to the large quantity of items to be sold, the collection will be sold over multiple auctions. You can find out more about the auctions of the Sound It Out Records Collection on the Vectis Auctions website, and Sound It Out’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Sound It Out Records has made a huge impact on the community of Teesside and has welcomed customers from far and wide, many of which left glowing reviews on their website. It is clear that Tom Butchart had a strong passion for music, as well as the people who entered his store, and through this, his legacy will remain.

The rapper’s second studio album debuted at the top spot this week with over 34,000 chart sales and an impressive 20.9 million streams. The release has beaten out the previous number one act, Inhaler, who dropped to number nineteen this week. The majority of the number one album’s sales were on physical configurations, 54% of sales came from CDs, Vinyls and cassettes, making the release the best-selling album on wax this week.

In the artist’s acceptance speech KSI celebrates his win, whilst thanking his fans, record label and creative team who helped him achieve the award. Within the video, the artist also gives a glimpse into the beginnings of his career as a YouTuber.

The 28-year-old artist released his second studio album on 16th July 2021 via the independent record label, RBC Records and its partner BMG. The album has sired five singles with three released before the album’s release and complete inception. The lead single ‘Really Love’, featured guest artists, pop icon Craig David and British DJ Digital Farm Animals. The single was released on 23rd October 2020 and debuted in the singles charts at number three. All but one of the album’s singles landed within the top three positions within the UK Singles charts, ‘Don’t Play’ and ‘Holiday’ reached number two and the third single ‘Patience’ landed at number three. The album’s latest single ‘Swerve’ released 2nd July 2021 landed within the UK singles charts at number sixty nine.

In the following interview with OfficalCharts.com, KSI discusses the process taken to complete the album. Within the interview the artist also discusses his progression within his career, whilst providing an insight into his personal and professional journey to further grow his musical talents.

The artist’s number one album features many collaborations including artists, Lil Durk, Rico Love, Deno, Future, 21 Savage and British singer and actor Yungblud. Much like Yunglud, KSI is also a man of many talents. The Watford born artist, otherwise known as Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, began his career as a YouTuber and influencer and was named within the top 100 UK influencers by The Sunday Times in 2019. His YouTube career started at an early age in 2008-2009, in his teens, he would upload gaming commentary videos to his YouTube channel under his account name KSIOlajideBT. KSI would then go on to drop out of Sixth Form college to follow his passion and YouTube career. Despite his teacher’s disapproval and doubts, his channel went on to earn an income and eventually became an impressive revenue stream. After uploading more Vlogs and similar video game content to his channel, he reached a million subscribers in 2012.

After gaining traction within the industry, he was signed to Polaris, a subsidiary of American network Maker Studio in 2013 and was recruited to join British YouTube collective the Sidemen. The group would branch out from just video game commentaries and began to upload sketches and various challenges. KSI would publish his biography in 2015 titled ‘KSI: I Am a Bellend’, after he toured in support of his book, KSI published another book entitled ‘Sidemen: The Book’. His second book would go on to sell 26,436 copies and scored top billing within the hardback fiction charts. In 2017, KSI posted on social media notifying fans that he would be leaving Sidemen due to internal issues within the group.

Throughout his early YouTube career, KSI was also exploring his musical talent, this began with comedy rap songs in which he uploaded to his channel in 2011. He released his debut single on 23rd March 2015 entitled ‘Lamborghini’ which featured grime artist MC P Money, the single debuted in the singles charts at number thirty. KSI would start to achieve traction within the charts with his initial complete EP ’Keep Up’, released on 8th January 2016, the release charted at number thirteen within the UK album charts and debuted at number one within the UK R&B Album chart. Further releases would follow until his first studio album ‘Dissimulation’ was released on 22nd May 2020. The album was a critical and commercial success and was certified silver after achieving over 60,000 UK unit sales and charted at number two within the UK Album charts, giving the rapper his second-highest album chart position to date.

KSI is not just a YouTube star and musical artist, this talented individual has also held an amateur and professional career in boxing, where the star fought other YouTube personalities such as Joe Weller and Logan Paul. KSI has also tried his hand at acting professionally, he starred in the 2016 film ‘Laid In America’ alongside fellow YouTuber Casper Lee. A documentary about the multitalented star was also released in 2018 entitled ‘KST: Can’t Lose’, which charted his struggles and journey in the world of boxing.

Fans will be able to catch the vastly talented artist perform live at various events this year, including a UK tour this autumn and festival appearances. The rapper will be performing at this year’s Reading and Leeds festivals which was confirmed to be going ahead this Summer.

KSI UK Live Dates

26-29/08/2021 – Bramham Park – Leeds
26-29/08 – Reading Festival – Reading
10-12/09 – TRNSMT 2021 – Glasgow
01/10 – Glasgow Garage – Glasgow
02/10 – Riverside – Newcastle Upon Tyne
03/10 – Asylum Hull University Union – Hull
05/10 – O2 Institute Birmingham – Birmingham
06/10 – Old Fire Station Bournemouth – Bournemouth
07/10 – SWX – Bristol
08/10 – Brighton Concorde 2 – Brighton
10/10 – Waterfront – Norwich
11/10 – Cambridge Junction – Cambridge
12/10 – Manchester Academy 2 – Manchester
13/10 – O2 Forum Kentish Town – London
15/10 – O2 Academy Oxford – Oxford
16/10 – Liverpool Hangar 34 – Liverpool
25/02/2022 – SSE Arena Wembley – London

Although Mozart probably never sat in a studio, and hasn’t made any new music in 225 years, he topped the list thanks to the release of ‘Mozart 225’ – a 200 CD-collection released this year in honour of the anniversary of the composer’s death. The box-set, only released in October, sold 6,250 copies according to Billboard, meaning that, taking into account the 200 CDs in each box, Mozart sold 1.25m CDs this year. Those 6,250 buyers can now enjoy to 240 hours of Mozart’s work, described by Universal as the ‘most authoritative, complete and scholarly box set ever devoted to the work of a single composer.’ Paul Moseley, director for Mozart 225, added, via NME, ‘It is wonderful to see the reaction to this box set, which is the fruit of years of scholarship, planning and curation. “It is wonderful to see the reaction to this box set, which is the fruit of years of scholarship, planning and curation.’

However, this interesting piece of trivia tells us more than just the answer to a pub quiz tiebreaker in 2040. It also gives an interesting insight into the state of the music business in 2016. Based on Spotify streams, for example, Mozart was nowhere near the top of 2016’s list, an honour which went to Drake whose music was streamed 4.7 billion streams in 2016, even though ‘Views’ was actually exclusive to iTunes for the first fortnight of its release. The declining importance of CD sales, and the corresponding rise in the importance of streaming, is widely known about but is nicely underlined by this news.Statistics reported in Music Business Worldwide show huge spikes in streaming, particularly paid streaming, coming at the expense both of CD sales and also permanent digital downloads (e.g. buying an album from iTunes). In the US, paid for on-demand Streaming revenues rose 112%, while permanent digital downloads actually fell 17%. The dramatic decline of permanent digital sales at the expense of streaming was emphasized last week when it was reported in City AM,  that in the UK, for one week at least, vinyl sales outstripped permanent digital downloads. It is perhaps therefore appropriate that a man whose name is essentially synonymous with classical music, has outsold all others on what is rapidly becoming the musical format most consigned to history, as even vinyl makes a comeback at the expense of the CD. Has anyone got any Mozart cassettes?

Overall, the statistics show a very healthy year for the music business as a whole, with global revenues up 5% in 2016 – after declining every year for almost two decades.. The UK had an especially good year, with overall revenues up 10.9%, including a 4.9% rise in physical formats, driven at least in part by the vinyl renaissance noted earlier. Mozart’s contribution should also not go unnoticed, and should at the very least be remembered for that pub quiz tiebreaker in 20 years time.