OCC data shows that up to last week the major had shifted 7.3m full- and mid-price artist album titles in the first 10 weeks of the quarter - around 69,000 more than over the equivalent period in 2009. This rise comes despite exclusive Music Week analysis that shows the overall market for artist albums has fallen off by 11.6% up to this point in Q4.

Take That's million-selling Progress, which was yesterday (Sunday) on course to spend a fifth straight ...