Weekly album sales have plummeted to a record 21st century low.

Overall LP figures over the last week are 27.62% down with week-on-week sales currently standing at 1,446,218. Compared with figures of 1,882,878 for the same week last year, that shows a 23.19% drop overall. That is lower than any of the 640 previous weeks that have elapsed since the year 2000.

The figures come despite Adele‘s album ’21’ returning to the summit yet again, overtaking a record jointly held by David Bowie and Dire Straits for the number of career weeks spent at the top of the UK Album Chart. The singer currently enjoys a tally of 23 weeks, that includes the one week ’19’ spent at Number One, plus 22 weeks for ’21’.

But sales of her album, which sold 22,235 copies over the last week, were the lowest for a number one album for 11 weeks, reports Music Week.

Sales of Madonna‘s new LP ‘MDNA’ were also down after 7,194 copies were snapped up over the last week. It is also the first Madonna studio album not to be in the Top 10 for its third week in the chart since 1984.

Despite the fall and a drop of 5.40% for week-on-week sales for singles over the last week, sales of singles have actually increased overall, with figures up by 11.89% compared with this time last year.

-nme.com