Despite prominent releases by major artists such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, David Bowie, and many more in the last year, UK retailers have blamed a “weak” release schedule for the lack of album sales in 2013.
Kim Bayley, general manager at ERA, a UK retail body, claims that “Music’s performance is primarily due to a weak release schedule, which is particularly disappointing given the huge investment by digital services in music’s future. Retailers will be hoping that labels deliver bigger hits in 2014.”
ERA represents several music retailers and streaming platforms such as HMV, Rough Trade, Amazon, Spotify, Deezer, O2 Tracks, and Bloom.fm. According to its figures, the biggest-selling album of the year was One Direction’s ‘Midnight Memories,’ which has sold over 685,000 copies. For the first time in more than 20 years, no single album has reached a million sales in 12 months.