It may be almost a year since he died, but David Bowie has helped provide a 53 per cent boost in vinyl sales in 2016.
Led by his album Blackstar, vinyl sales reaches 3.2 million, the highest number of LPs sold since 1991. Bowie had four other albums in the top 30 for vinyl: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory, Nothing Has Changed – V.Best of Bowie, and ChangesOne.
According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a total of 123 million album equivalent sales were made last year in the music retail sector overall, a 1.5 per cent increase on 2015‘s figures.
The BPI estimated this equated to a retail value of £1 billion.
READ MORE: Vinyl outsells digital downloads for the first time
The industry body also said there were 45 billion audio streams served in 2016, a whopping 68 per cent increase compared to 2015.
Meanwhile, Adele‘s 25 was the overall best-selling artist album, while Coldplay, Little Mix, the 1975, Rick Astley and the Rolling Stones also performed well.
The biggest single was One Dance, released by Canadian hip-hop artist Drake.
“Growth in UK music consumption in 2016 was fuelled by the explosive rise in audio streaming, which has increased 500 per cent since 2013, and relative resilience from physical formats,” BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said.
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