Robin Thicke, Daft Punk Top U.K. Music Singles Sales Chart for 2013

Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” featuring TI and Pharrell Williams, and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” featuring Nile Rodgers and Williams, were the biggest-selling singles of 2013 in Britain.

Overall singles sales for the year in the U.K. came in at 182.2 million, just shy of a record of 186.6 million set in 2012, according to data from the Official Charts Company and British recorded music trade body BPI.

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Overall album sales, across various formats, also came in below 2012, driven by a drop in CD sales, falling 6.4 percent to $1.28 billion (£772 million) in 2013, according to the data.

Total trade music revenue in Britain again topped $1.66 billion (£1 billion), they said, without providing further details.

Streaming revenue broke the £100 million ($166 million) barrier in 2013 for the first time, with the estimated $170 million accounting for 10 percent of the overall value of U.K. recorded music sales, the data trackers said.

“The success of digital music in 2013 surpassed all previous records — we celebrated the one billionth track download, counted four million-selling digital singles and streamed more than seven billion songs,” said BPI CEO Geoff Taylor. “As digital music moves into the streaming era, the prospects for future growth in the U.K. music market look strong.”

“Blurred Lines” sold more than 1.47 million copies since it debuted at number 1 in Britain in June. The song spent five weeks in the top spot, making it the longest-running number 1 hit of 2013.

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“Get Lucky,” which was the French dance duo’s first-ever U.K. chart-topper, ended the year with a sales tally of more then 1.3 million copies.

Williams said about the two top singles of the year that he was involved in: “I’m humbled by all of the love the U.K. fans have shown. But when you are working with incredible talent like The Robots and Robin, great things are bound to happen.” His current single, “Happy,” became Britain’s final number 1 of 2013.

Two other singles released during the year topped the one million sales mark in Britain.

Swedish DJ Avicii claimed the third-biggest-selling single of 2013 with “Wake Me Up,” which has sold 1.18 million copies, while Britain’s own Passenger, aka Mike Rosenberg, sold more than 1.03 million copies of “Let Her Go,” which peaked at number 2 in the charts.

Naughty Boy’s “La La La” sold more than 941,000 copies since it was released in May to round out the top five singles of the year.

The top 10 biggest singles of 2013 in Britain each sold over 710,000 copies. U.K. artists accounted for 37.5 percent of all tracks in the Official Top 40, down from 45 percent in 2012.

Beyond Passenger, Bastille is the highest-ranked British group with their hit “Pompeii” coming in 11th for the year, while Ellie Goulding is the best-selling British female artist of 2013 with “Burn,” which came in 15th for the year.

The biggest-selling album overall in the U.K. was compilation Now That’s What I Call Music 86, which sold 1.1 million copies. As reported earlier in the week, One Direction’s Midnight Memories was the biggest-selling artist album of the year in Britain with 685,000 copies sold by year’s end.

That makes it nine years in a row that a U.K. artist has had the top seller in the country. The others were Emeli Sande with Our Version Of Events in 2012, Adele‘s 21 in 2011, Take That’s Progress, Susan Boyle‘s I Dreamed A Dream, Duffy‘s Rockferry, Amy Winehouse‘s Back to Black in 2007, Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open 2006 and James Blunt‘s Back to Bedlam in 2005.

“The British public’s affinity for British music is alive and kicking,” said BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth. “For an impressive ninth year in a row, a U.K. artist signed, developed and supported by a British record label has claimed the best-selling artist album on home turf.”

Other top 10 albums last year came from former Take That stars Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, as well as Rod Stewart.

Here is a look at the top 10 albums of 2013 in the U.K.:
1. One Direction Midnight Memories
2. Emeli Sande Our Version of Events
3. Michael Buble To Be Loved
4. Robbie Williams Swings Both Ways
5. Olly Murs Right Place Right Time
6. Bruno Mars Unorthodox Jukebox
7. Rod Stewart Time
8. Arctic Monkeys AM
9. Gary Barlow Since I Saw You Last
10. Ellie Goulding Halcyon

E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai