SINGLES

With punters redeeming gift cards and acquiring digital downloads to secure musical content for mobile devices received as Christmas presents, singles sales reached an all-time high last week.

Climbing 49.37% week-on-week to 5,696,413, they surpassed by 4.49% the previous high of 5,451,493 set exactly a year earlier.  A year ago, new records were set for sales of every record from number seven to number 200 inclusive; last week saw new highs for 77 chart positions: 5-13, 17-40, 76-78, 92-94, ...