Albums equivalent sales are up compared to this time in 2016, new figures reveal

Album equivalent sales in 2017 are higher than this time last year, the latest market figures have revealed. 

The growth of streaming and the resurgence of vinyl have seen Album Equivalent Sales (AES) increase 11.4% compared to this time in 2016, according to figures released by the BPI.

There has been a total of 94.2 million combined album sales so far this year in the UK, based on the AES metric, which combines physical, digital download and streaming equivalent sales.

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During the Q3 period (July to September) specifically, AES increased by 11.1%, with 30.3 million combined sales. Official Charts recently revealed the biggest albums of the year to date, including strong sales for Ed Sheeran, Rag'n'Bone Man, Stormzy and Little Mix.

Between July and September, CD sales were down by 13.3%, while vinyl sales rocketed by 30.6% to a total of 761,234. Digital download album sales fell by 21.1% to 3.14m, but stream equivalent albums (SEA) increased by 46.8%, that's around 17 billion streams over three months gave a 'sales' figure of 16.98m.

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That means in Q3, stream equivalent albums accounted for 56% of total sales, with physical at 27.8%, digital download albums at 10.4% and track equivalent albums at 5.8%.

The music industry will now be looking to see if the final quarter of the year (Q4), the period between October and December, can further increase AES growth. It's traditionally the biggest sales period of the year and this year's release slate is a packed one, including new records from Sam Smith, Taylor Swift, Paloma Faith, Morrissey and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. See all the big albums still to come the year here.

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"Looking at the numbers, consumer demand for music is strong, which is extremely encouraging,” BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor told Music Week. “Looking at this point of the year, clearly with Christmas to come, that can have a huge impact on the year-end results. But certainly we’ve seen strengthening consumer demand and that’s very good news.”

Look back through every Official UK Number 1 album of 2017 so below: