Adele becomes first artist to breach 1m sales barrier in Europe
Pop singer Adele has become the first artist to breach the 1m album sales barrier in Europe on iTunes following the release of her new album, 21.
The album has gone down well on the recession hit continent since its release back on January 21, taking just 11 months to reach the milestone.
Dubbing the achievement a “great landmark for digital album sales”, independent music analyst Mark Mulligan told the Telegraph: “This is a positive news for the music industry and Apple’s iTunes has done a great job of helping to sell digital albums,” he said.
“However, mass buying of digital albums is swimming against the tide and is getting rarer. Most people now like consuming music as singles and a growing number either stream songs or watch the videos on YouTube. Fewer and fewer people download entire albums to own.
“Downloading albums to own is becoming a less and less important part of how fans and artists interact.”
Artists are becoming increasingly reliant on generating YouTube views and Facebook fans in order to drum up interest.