Machine Gun Kelly, The Weeknd, Yard Act Among Top Selling Cassettes In UK So Far This Year
Tape releases from Bastille and Years & Years also made it into the Top 10
Machine Gun Kelly, The Weeknd, Yard Act and more are among the top-selling cassettes in the UK so far in 2022.
The Official Charts Company (OCC) has compiled a Top 40 chart of the biggest tape releases sold out in the country nearly midway through the year, with Central Cee’s 23 coming out on top. Close behind at No.2 is Machine Gun Kelly’s mainstream sellout, who shifted enough cassettes within the album’s first week of release to score a spot on the chart.
The Weeknd’s Dawn FM is currently the biggest new release of the year so far in the UK and the tape version of the album lands at No.4 on the chart. Elsewhere in the Top 10 are Leeds’ Yard Act at No.5 with their debut album The Overload, Bastille’s triumphant fourth record Give Me The Future at No.8, and Night Call, Years & Years’ first record since becoming a solo project, at No.9.
Many tape sales have been propelled by limited edition and special releases, such as Bastille’s Give Me The Future being available with covers for each individual member of the band or with the standard album artwork.
The number of cassettes being sold in the UK – and worldwide – is on the increase. According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), more than 185,000 tapes were sold in the UK in 2021, marking an increase of 20,000 units from the year prior. That figure also gave tapes the highest recorded sales numbers since 2003.
Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album Sour topped the Top 40 chart of best-selling cassettes in the UK in 2021. Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club, Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, Elton John’s The Lockdown Sessions, and Demi Lovato’s Dancing With The Devil… The Art Of Starting Over also landed in the Top 10.
In other Machine Gun Kelly news, earlier this month the musician broke the record for most solo hits on the Billboard Hot Rock Chart. A whopping 14 tracks from mainstream sellout made it into the chart within the first week of the album’s release.
