Sales boost for music featured in Olympic ceremonies

The music featured in the opening and closingceremonies of the London 2012 Olympics has sparked a big surge in sales.
According toindustry figures, the events boosted downloads and sales by a retail value of £2.2m.
There werenearly 250,000 extra album sales after the two showcases for British music, andjust under 500,000 additional music track downloads.
Analysis ofsales in following weeks by BPI, which represents the British recorded musicindustry, showed the big winners included Emeli Sande, whose album surged pastAdele as the best seller of this year so far.
Sande's songRead All About It Part Three, had sold 449 copies in the week leading up to theclosing ceremony, but the Aberdeenshire singer sold 45,000 copies in thefollowing week.
There were evensteeper increases in sales for Kate Bush, with Running Up That Hill, beaten inthe percentage increase only by The Who, with See Me Feel Me.
Nearly quarterof the tracks in the top 100 singles chart in the week after the closingceremony on 12 August were songs performed at the event, including three in thetop 10.
After theopening ceremony, the big winners in sales included I Still Believe by FrankTurner, Brian Eno's An Ending, Chemical Brothers' Galvanize, and Tubular Bells,performed by Mike Oldfield.
Compilation albums
In album sales,which include digital downloads as well as compact discs, 24 of the top 100chart after the closing ceremony were by artists who performed or had songsincluded in the event. Five of those were in the top 10 albums; Emeli Sande,Elbow, Ed Sheeran, Jessie J and One Direction.
Elbow's 2008album The Seldom Seen Kid entered the chart at number six.
Two compilationalbums were launched after the events. Isles of Wonder, based on the openingevent, was ninth biggest selling compilation album last week, having reachedthe number two spot, while Symphony of British Music, featuring acts from theclosing, is at 17.
More than 50pieces of music were played at each of the ceremonies. The close, on August 12,featured more live performances, and was found to have a bigger impact on salesthan the opener.
There was alift of 267,000 in the number of tracks downloaded in the subsequent week,compared with 225,000 extra tracks downloaded after the opening event, above thetrend level set in previous weeks.
Source:BBC
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