Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed the global success of British music as new BPI figures revealed big-selling albums by Adele, Emeli Sandé, One Direction and Ed Sheeran boosted UK artists’ share of album sales globally to 13.3% in 2012, the highest on record.

Building on 2011’s global artist album share of 12.6%, British acts have now claimed the world’s top-selling album for five of the last six years, according to BPI figures.

PM Cameron welcomed the figures saying, ...