Sales of Skepta’s Mercury Prize winning album Konnichiwa have rocketed by 260% since he was presented with the award last week, Music Week analysis of Official Charts Company figures has revealed.
The album has also jumped 40 places in the album charts from 53-13 over the past week, according to the OCC’s midweek sales flash, notching up sales of 3,296. Total sales for Konnichiwa are currently at 85,393, of which 13,042 are physical and 32,586 are downloads.
The Mercury effect has also resulted in sales surges for several other nominated artists. The 1975’s I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It has seen an uplift of 13.4%, jumping 29-26 in the midweeks on sales of 1,546, while sales of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool are up 51%, leaping from 79-40 on sales of 1,378).
Meanwhile, Michael Kiwanuka’s Love & Hate has seen a sales spike of 79.5%, sending it from 97-43 on sales of 1,337, while David Bowie’s Blackstar benefits from a 98.4% sales increase, as it re-enters the Top 100 from 113-52, registering sales of 1,186.
Sales of Kano’s Made In The Manor are up 35.9%, moving 30 places (138-108) with sales of 692.
2016 has been hailed as a great year for grime, with Skepta’s Mercury Prize win hailed as a breakthrough moment, while Stormzy’s innovator Award victory at the AIM Awards has been cited as another key moment for the genre.
Speaking to Music Week about the rise of grime this year, Austin Daboh, Spotify UK senior editor of content programming, described the genre as Britain’s “most potent genre since Britpop”.
