NATIONAL ALBUM DAY, THE SEQUEL

National Album Day is back for a second year in the U.K. It will fall on 10/12, with support from ambassadors Lewis Capaldi, Elbow, Mahalia and Mark Ronson. This year's theme, “Don’t Skip,” aims to encourage music lovers to discover the album as a complete body of work that tells a story. Did it have an impact on sales last year?

Well, no, is the short answer. In the week of National Album Day 2018 (ending 10/19), sales of albums were down by over 1.6k on the week prior, according to Official Charts Company stats seen in Music Week. Sales were up by 0.3% year-on-year, but that was the lowest yearly rise of the prior four weeks. Will this year's stats fare any better?

Across the whole of 2018, the BPI says 143m albums or their equivalent were either streamed, purchased or downloaded in the U.K., which was worth approximately £1.3billion at retail, representing a near 6% rise on the year before.

The British music and artist community will come together with the support of BBC Sounds for a series of events and activities in the lead-up to NAD, which is organized jointly by record-label body the BPI, ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) and AIM (Association of Independent Music). The theme also aims to highlight the wellbeing and mental-health benefits of album listening as a form of musical mindfulness.