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NEWS 3 The Icelandic star is to receive AIM’s Outstanding Contribution award

PUBLISHING 8 EMI and Universal slug it out in closest quarterly publishing battle for six years

SINGLES SALES ARE LIKELY TO REACH 160m THIS YEAR

Singles sales smash 100m in record time

Singletons – Adele and Bruno Mars have contributed to a massive singles sales spike in 2011

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26.08.11 £5.15

TALENT 12 X Factor star cements an outstanding year with his second album

SALESnBYPAUL WILLIAMS

Like You, which is the first single in six years to have sold more than 1 million copies by this point of a year.

THE UK SINGLES MARKET has smashed through the 100 million unit barrier in record time this year with annual sales set to surpass 160 million for the first time.

Atlantic Records UK chairman Max Lousada, whose company has two Bruno Mars singles among the year-to-date’s Top 10 sellers, suggested there were two or three elements at play to cause the singles market to grow so rapidly.

Sales hit the milestone at the beginning of last week, according to Official Charts Company figures, achieving the landmark more than a month earlier than in 2010. In 2009 it took until the beginning of October for year-to-date sales to reach 100 million units.

“It’s the maturing of iTunes, the excitement of the Sunday release date (pre-digital new singles traditionally came out on a Monday) and the iTunes chart, which has re-energised a singles

The singles sector is currently 12.2% bigger than it was at this stage of the year in 2010, growing at a much faster rate than 12 months ago when the market had expanded by 7.2% up to mid-August.

“It’s the maturing of iTunes, the excitement of the Sunday release and the iTunes chart which has re-energised the singles consumer...” MAX LOUSADA, ATLANTIC

consumer who had become fatigued about hits,” he said. “There is the instant gratification of success, seeing something become a hit or not and having some ownership of control [of the chart] is adding fuel to the fire.”

This massive growth has been led by a dozen titles having each sold more than 500,000 copies this year – just four had done so over the same timeframe two years ago.The rollcall includes XL act Adele’s Someone

Going by the present rate of annual expansion, the UK’s singles sector is on course to grow to around 160 to 165 million units this year. This will comfortably be a record: the market last year increased to an annual high of 146.8 million units, while the two previous years were the first in which the sector had breached the 100 million mark.

If the increase in sales does continue at the current rate for the rest of the year it will leave the market more than twice the size it was in 2007 when 79.3 million singles were purchased, while in 2005 – the year after iTunes launched in the UK – the sector stood at 42.2m units.

The improving fortunes of the UK’s singles market contrasts with an albums sector in which the Official Charts Company’s weekly figures show is 4.2% down year-on-year in unit terms. This decline has accelerated in recent weeks having been only around 2% a month ago.

However, in reality the drop is likely to be steeper as the OCC weekly stats do not include sales of “unmatched” titles – releases that cannot automatically be identified as either being digital singles and albums. When they were factored in at the halfway point of 2011 they showed the total albums market was down 2.2% on the year, rather than 1.1% as the weekly OCC figures were suggesting.  paul.williams@intentmedia.co.uk

RedOne reveals GaGaCher Lloyd collaboration

Poker Face co-writer redone has revealed that Lady GaGa and 2010 X Factor finalist cher Lloyd are collaborating on a forthcoming single.

the Sony/atV-signed composer, real name nadir khayat, is famous for his work with GaGa – helping to pen her Uk number one hits Bad romance and Just dance, as well as her recent top 10 singles Judas and alejandro.

and in the past few months he has also worked closely with Lloyd on her forthcoming debut album, which is set for release later this year.

in an exclusive interview with Music Week, redone said the two performers would appear together on one of the album’s tracks.

“it’s a track that GaGa and i wrote together a while ago and when cher heard it she just loved it. i am in the studio putting the finishing touches to it just now and i’m really excited about it,” he said

“it’s going to be a big one i think – two icons working together.” khayat added that although Lloyd failed to win last year’s contest – coming fourth behind one direction, rebecca Ferguson and winner Matt cardle, he saw something in the singer which excited him right from the start of the series. “with cher, she is very special. the way she acts, the way she sings – she’s a star. a lot of artists don’t have that,” he noted.

Because the track is still being worked on it has yet to be given an official title or a release date.

an in-depth interview with khayat will appear in next week’s magazine.

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