There have been over 100 million singles sold in the UK in 2011 already, which is pretty impressive.
In 2010 it took until October for sales to reach that landmark, making 2011 better by about six weeks. It's estimated that sales will eventually break 160 million by the end of the year and that's probably just including sales of One Direction's new single.
So far a dozen songs have passed the 500,000 mark, which is eight more than at this point last year. The biggest selling single so far is (of course) Adele's 'Someone Like You', which has already sold in excess of one million copies.
Atlantic Records UK chairman Max Lousada had some theories as to why this is all happening and he expressed them to Music Week. "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 consumer who had become fatigued about hits."
While it's good news for singles, album sales are 4.2% down on last year. OH WELL.