Sales hit the milestone at the beginning of last week, according to Official Charts Company figures, achieving the landmark more than a month earlier than in 2010. In 2009 it took until the beginning of October for year-to-date sales to reach 100 million units.

The singles sector is currently 12.2% bigger than it was at this stage of the year in 2010, growing at a much faster rate than 12 months ago when the market had expanded by 7.2% up ...