Xmas bonus as album sales soar.

A flood of frontline releases deluging the pre-Christmas market sent UK album sales skywards to record levels at the end of 2001.

The music industry grabbed a starring role in the continuing High Street sales boom, despite economic uncertainty, as over-the-counter albums sales rocketed by around 8% year-on-year during the last fortnight of the year. The surge helped to lift combined album sales across the year by 7.9% to 144.9m units, although singles dipped by 8.1% to 51.2m units.

"For the market to be 8% up in the last two weeks is very good for the industry," says EUK commercial director Richard Izard. "It shows there's strength in the UK record industry, even though the rest of Europe and the States are struggling."

However, against the dominance of The Beatles' 1 in 2000, Izard notes that sales were spread across more titles at the end of this year, although Robbie Williams' EMI:Chrysalis-issued Swing When You're Winning managed to approach 1.5m sales in just six weeks.

Universal claimed the market's most successful greatest hits title with Gabrielle's Dreams Come True, which led four of its titles among the year's Christmas Top 10. Half of the Top 10 comprised best of releases, compared to three in the equivalent chart in 2000, while UK-signed acts dominated the biggest sellers with eight of the 10 leading titles.

Virgin Megastores managing director Andy Randall is convinced the record TV advertising spend on albums in the run-up to Christmas -- including market leader Universal raising ...