Charts analysis: The Prodigy maintain chart-topping album run
by Alan Jones

The Prodigy’s seventh studio album, No Tourists, also becomes their seventh No.1 - a record for a dance act - opening atop the chart on sales of 23,952 copies (including 1,828 from sales-equivalent streams). That is the second lowest of the veteran dance trio’s career, beating only their 1992 debut release, Experience, which debuted and peaked at No.12.

In addition to topping the overall chart, No Tourists is No.1 on the vinyl album chart (2,399 sales) and the cassette chart, where it sales of 2,010 are extraordinary, and by far the highest of any cassette in any week in the 2010s. It is already No.2 in the year-to-date cassette chart, behind Kylie Minogue’s Golden (2,867 sales) and No.5 on the 2010s chart, where Guardians Of The Galaxy soundtrack sets Awesome Mix 1 and Awesome Mix 2 lead the way, on sales of 5,680 and 5,064, respectively, with Minogue in third place.

All other Prodigy first week sales are massively overshadowed by the 316,953 copies that their fastest starter, Fat Of The Land, sold on debut in 1997. In descending order of sales, their other No.1 studio albums' first week tallies are as follows: Invaders Must Die - 97,254 (2009), Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned - 64,266 (2004), The Day Is My Enemy – 45,302 (2015), Music For The Jilted Generation - 32,056 (1994). 2005 compilation Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005, also a No.1, had a first week tally of 79,708 sales (2005). The Fat Of The Land remains their biggest seller, with a to-date tally of 1,428,172 out of total UK album sales for the act of 4,707,982

Ouch these pumbling numbers. Should not be much difference with the day

Stats provided by trade body the BPI earlier this year said streaming now accounts for more than half (50.4%) of all music consumption in the UK with a record 1.5 billion streams served in one week last December.

In the UK, album sales actually saw a rise, in total, 135.1 million albums were sold, an increase of 9.5%.

However, in the US - the world's biggest music market - sales have plummeted. Figures published by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), showed sales dropped by more than 25% in the first quarter of 2018, compared with 2017.

Joshua Friedlander, the senior vice-president for Strategic Data Analysis for the RIAA told the BBC: "The changes we're seeing in the market are a reflection of the way fans are listening to music, but ultimately it's up to each artist and his or her label partner to decide how best to release their music - as a body of work in an album or EP, a singles strategy, or a combination of both.

He added: "While revenues from traditional album formats such as CDs and digital albums have declined in recent years, they are now being more than offset by an increase in revenues from streaming."