Uptown Funk 5th biggest UK seller of all time

Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk has hit the 2 million mark in the UK, and become the fifth biggest-selling track of all time, according to his UK record label Columbia.

The track, featuring Bruno Mars has, according to Columbia, overtaken Wings’ 1977 hit Mull Of Kintyre/Girls’ School. The Wings track has officially sold 2.5 million in the UK. But the Columbia claim is based on gross revenue, rather than units sold.

The global music industry is increasingly adopting a Hollywood’s “box office” approach when discussing a track or album’s success. Called REA (‘Revenue Equivalent Albums’) the figures are calculated based on physical, digital and audio/video streaming as well as streams of its singles.

Based on these calculations, Uptown Funk has sold a staggering 14.6 million TTE (Total Track Equivalent) globally.

Uptown Funk was released in the UK last November and stayed at #1 spot for seven weeks. Columbia says that it has been streamed 60 million times, the most streamed song in the UK during the first half of 2015.

Columbia UK’s Uptown Funk claim came as part of its REA calculations that it has clocked up 8 million sales from just four album releases by UK-signed acts. These were George Ezra’s Wanted On Voyage (2.5 million); Calvin Harris’s Motion (2.7 million); Mark Ronson’s Uptown Special (2 million); and The Script’s No Sound Without Silence (900,000).

Jason Iley, Chairman & CEO, Sony Music UK, said: “These figures are truly exceptional – and also highlight the hugely exciting global demand for British music right now which supports Sony’s ongoing commitment to signing homegrown talent for global success.”

Under the units-only sales calculation, the biggest selling UK single is Elton John’s Candle In The Wind (4.92 million) and then Band Aid’s Do They Know It's Christmas? (3.75 million). It is followed by Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Pharrell Williams’ Happy.

In Australia, Uptown Funk picked up its 8th platinum in June for sales of 560,000, according to The Gavin Ryan Report.