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Latest NOW! record shifts 317,000 units in one week
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 29 July 2013
So, if you’ve been busy writing off the compilations market – which has certainly slumped in recent years – you might need have to reclassify the NOW! franchise.
Neatly helping Sony to justify splashing out on buying EMI’s half of the NOW That’s What I Call Music! business back in February, the latest edition of the pop compo – now a joint venture between Sony and Universal – has sold 317,000 units in its first week.
Although large first-week NOW! sales – certainly when compared to the average featured artist album – are not that unusual, this is the first summer edition of the compilation series to surpass 300,000 copies sold in one week since 2008. And it was speculated last week that NOW! would outsell the artist album Top 100 in its entirety.
Commenting on the big sales of the latest NOW! record, Steve Pritchard, Joint MD of the franchise, told CMU: “This is the most fantastic start to the next new era of NOW, with both Universal Music and Sony Music delighted with this result. The NOW brand continues to power forward and continues to resonate massively with consumers”.
He added: “There are many exciting things happening around the brand, such as the recent success of our NOW Running App, and we’re looking forward to the next few months, with many interesting new tech developments to come and a great autumn schedule”.
Needless to say, the latest NOW! topped the compilations chart yesterday. Meanwhile in the singles chart One Direction’s ‘Best Song Ever’ failed to knock Avicii off the number one spot. Which surely obligates them to change the track’s title to ‘Second Best Song Ever’?