One Direction Takes the Title as Bestselling X Factor Act

of All Time on Amazon.co.uk

One Direction’s global domination continues as the band also takes the title as bestselling UK

X Factor act in America on Amazon.com, followed by Leona Lewis and Cher Lloyd.

Groups have success with JLS, One Direction, and Little Mix all featured in the top 10 Amazon.co.uk

X Factor bestsellers list, despite Little Mix being the only group to win the show.

Cheryl Cole is the mentor with the most acts in the top 20 UK bestsellers, but Simon Cowell has the highest ranking acts, 
having mentored three out of the top five.

Luxembourg, 13th December 2013 – The hotly anticipated final of the tenth series of The X Factor takes place this weekend, and the winning contestant’s single will be available in the Amazon MP3 Storeshortly after the result of the public vote is revealed on Sunday night. In anticipation of the series finale, Amazon.co.uk has announced the bestselling X Factor acts since the series started 10 years ago.

Despite only coming third in the seventh series of The X Factor, One Direction’s latest album has helped them become the bestselling X Factor act of all time on Amazon.co.uk, taking over from Olly Murs who held the title in November. The band’s latest album Midnight Memories was announced in October as the fastest selling album of all time on Amazon.co.uk based on day one pre-orders alone. As the album is AutoRip eligible, Amazon.co.uk customers receive a free MP3 version when they buy the CD.

Olly Murs, over 25s category contestant and runner up in series six (2009), moves to the number two spot, closely followed by JLS at number three shortly after the release of the band’s final album Goodbye – The Greatest Hits (18th November).

Powerhouse Leona Lewis is the bestselling female X Factor act, taking fourth place, and Liverpool-born songstress Rebecca Ferguson rounds off the top five. Both acts released new albums on 2nd December: Lewis got festive with Christmas, With Love, whilst Ferguson followed up her debut with Freedom.

Little Mix, the only group ever to have won The X Factor, take the number six slot following the release of their second album Salute on 11th November. Series 2 winner Shayne Ward takes tenth place having recently returned to The X Factor as a guest mentor.

Series 9 winner James Arthur takes 12th place following the release of his self-titled debut on 4th November, with series 9 runner up Jahméne Douglas following at 17th after his debut Love Never Fails was released earlier this year (22nd July).

Continued…

The top 20 bestselling X Factor artists of all time on Amazon.co.uk are:

*Compiled based on MP3 and CD album sales. Albums available for pre-order but net yet released have not been included.

Chery Cole is the mentor with the most acts (five) making the list, but Simon Cowell is the mentor with the highest ranking acts; three of his four acts that make the list all feature within the top five. Louis Walsh, the only judge to appear on all ten X Factor series, matches Cowell with four acts in the top 20, peaking with JLS at number three.

The best performing categories are the boys and the groups, each with six entries on the list. The girls follow with four acts featuring in the top 20, after which come the over 25s and historic category 16 – 24s, each with two entries.

Whilst X Factor winners have the most entries in the list (eight), non-winners place highest in the top 10: One Direction, Olly Murs and JLS all beat the first winner to place in the list - Leona Lewis. Series seven (2010) has produced the biggest stars, with both the highest number of acts making the top 20 from any series, as well as the highest ranking acts, with three in the top ten: One Direction, Rebecca Fergusonand Matt Cardle. 

One of the biggest international acts of the moment, One Direction has also taken the title as the bestselling UK X Factor act of all time in America on Amazon.com. Cher Lloyd comes in as the third biggest X Factor export, eight places above her rank in the UK, evidencing the success of her increasing focus on this market. Rebecca Ferguson also beats Little Mix in the US, taking fifth place ahead of Little Mix’s sixth. With the US bestsellers, non-winners have seen more success than winners, with both more acts in the top ten, as well as higher rankings.

The top 10 bestselling UK X Factor artists of all time in America on Amazon.com are:

*Compiled based on MP3 and CD album sales. Albums available for pre-order but not yet released have not been included.

“Millions of viewers are expected to tune in to the X Factor series ten final this weekend and there’s all to play for with finalists Luke Friend, Nicholas McDonald and Sam Bailey all having gained a loyal fan base,”said Steve Bernstein, Director, EU Digital Music, Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.  “One Direction’s place as the bestselling UK X Factor act of all time demonstrates the massive impact the series can have, bringing lasting success to undiscovered talent, regardless of whether they win the series or not.”

The X Factor 2013 winner’s single will be available to download from the Amazon MP3 Store shortly after the public vote is revealed on Sunday night, www.amazon.co.uk/mp3.

The X Factor, a 2CD compilation celebrating 10 years of the X Factor, is available on CD and to download from the Amazon MP3 Store. Visit www.amazon.co.uk/music to browse releases by the entire back catalogue of X Factor stars.

-Ends-

-Notes to Editors-

For more information please contact Cult.Brand:

Emily Airton: Emily.airton@cultbrand.co.uk / 0207 749 6850 / 07816 905 788

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Additionally, customers who have purchased AutoRip albums at any time since Amazon.co.uk first opened its Music Store in 1999 will find MP3 versions of those albums in their Cloud Player libraries – also automatically and for free. More than 350,000 albums, including titles from every major record label, are available for AutoRip, and more titles are added all the time – customers can just look for the AutoRip logo. Visit www.amazon.co.uk/AutoRip for more details.

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Amazon.co.uk Cloud Player eliminates the need to download files before playing them. MP3 songs and albums customers purchase from Amazon – even those purchased in the past – can be automatically saved to Cloud Player, so customers have a secure backup copy of the music they buy at Amazon, free of charge. Customers can also import the rest of their music, including music purchased from iTunes or ripped from CDs. All Amazon purchases and the first 250 imported songs are stored for free, or customers can import up to 250,000 songs for £21.99 per year.

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