National Album Day’s 2020 edition has been celebrated as the most successful yet, with the BPI's Geoff Taylor leading the celebrations.
Taylor said the team behind the event has “taken it to the next level” as National Album Day releases claimed three places in the albums Top 20 and contributed to a 24% lift in sales for Saturday, October 10.
Held in association with BBC Sounds and audio partner Bowers & Wilkins, the 80s-themed event drove 112,000 vinyl sales in total, the fourth biggest sales week for the format of 2020 so far.
In the Official Vinyl Chart, six of the Top 10 and 23 of the Top 40 were National Album Day releases. Iron Maiden’s reissue of their 1980 debut topped the list, with The Stone Roses at No.2, Linkin Park at No.3 and Foals at No.4. National Album Day releases sold almost 25,000 copies across the week. Dire Straits’ The Studio Albums 1978-1991 made the albums chart Top 10.
There were 19 National Album Day titles in the Official Albums Chart Top 200, accounting for 41,000 sales across all formats and 11% album consumption across the Top 200.
The event enjoyed support across BBC television and radio, while the #MyAlbumEscape campaign drove engagement on social media.
Our goals this year were to boost public engagement
Geoff Taylor, BPI
Geoff Taylor said: “Our goals this year were to boost public engagement with National Album Day and generate greater impact in-store. Fantastic coverage across the BBC, combined with stories across print and social media, led to a national conversation about the importance of the album. The ’80s theme seems to have resonated with fans and delivered a significant impact on the chart. We are grateful to the artist, label and retail communities for embracing the day so enthusiastically; to our ambassadors and our partners BBC Sounds and Bowers & Wilkins; and to everyone who worked so hard to take this event to the next level.”
Kim Bayley, chief executive Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), said: "For ERA members, National Album Day celebrations stepped up a notch this year with a great selection of ’80s CD and vinyl releases accompanied by outstanding support from BBC Sounds across their broadcast networks. Retailers supported across the board with prominent in-store branding from all four major supermarkets and HMV, as well as hundreds of indie record shops up and down the UK. With live events scaled back, many physical retailers and DSPs such as Deezer, YouTube, Amazon and Spotify were able to refocus their activity into the hugely successful #MyAlbumEscape social campaign as well as coordinating in-app editorial, live-streams and social media content. It certainly delivered an impactful commercial boost as well as fulfilling its role of bringing the nation together to celebrate such a culturally important part of music's heritage."
It certainly delivered an impactful commercial boost
Kim Bayley, ERA
Chris Shiels, sales director, Commercial Division Universal Music UK, said: “It was encouraging to see music fans engaging with National Album Day again this year and having fun celebrating the 80s. It’s clear looking at the charts that we have seen an uplift on footfall and sales on focus albums, while the ambassadors and media added great support and passion to an important day in the music calendar which saw it trending thought out the day.“
Pat Howe, head of sales, Proper Music Distribution, said: “We are really pleased with the response to National Album Day this year. The enthusiasm amongst music fans for talking about their favourite albums was reflected in the outpouring of material across social media and seems to have established this now as a proper annual celebration. We look forward to seeing how the day will develop in different ways in the future.”
David Athey, HMV head of music & technology, said: “HMV happily supported National Album Day, helping to promote the incredible hard work and vision that goes into creating a physical album. A real positive to come out of 2020 is that people have had the time to rediscover the pleasure of getting to know albums a little more and focusing on the ’80s provided a theme that resonated strongly with our customers. Across all the key album events in the second half of the year kicking off with our very own Vinyl Week and subsequent RSD events plus NAD, limited coloured vinyl releases have consistently performed well, along with the new reissues, but we also pleased by the sales lift across the supporting catalogue in this offer. Our stores really got behind it, with colleagues dressing up and delivering some great social coverage, so we feel the clear theme really helped elevate the message this year.”
It has been a really lovely experience in a crazy year
Toyah Wilcox
National Album Day ambassador, Toyah Willcox, said: “It has been a huge privilege to be a NAD ambassador this year. Celebrating the music of the ’80s, a decade that is loved by generation after generation. The art in making an entire album is a journey the artist wants to take the audience on, personally I have treated all my albums as an audio journey. This year’s re-releases encouraged music lovers to buy timeless music. I like to think NAD has also encouraged new up-coming artists to think about making full albums as their right of expression, thus keeping the high street retailers stocked and trading in decades to come. It has been a really lovely experience in a crazy year!"
Fellow ambassadors, Kim & Marty Wilde said: “Being National Album Day ambassadors this year was an honour, privilege and total joy for us. The ’80s was a pivotal decade for our family within the music industry, so to be able to represent this era for National album day 2020, was particularly special. It was fantastic to be able to work together again as father and daughter, sharing our combined experiences with everyone, and enjoying dad/daughter time together. Celebrating that rare feat of eight decades in music on the eve of national album day was the cherry on the cake… A wonderful experience for us from start to finish.”
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