Mercury bounce for nominees

Glasvegas have been the biggest beneficiaries so far of their Mercury Prize nomination, with sales multiplying by ten after the announcement of the shortlist for this year's prize. Overall, sales for the nominated albums have more than doubled.

The figures were released by HMV, who have tracked sales at all of their stores (high street, online & digital) over the past fortnight (following the announcement of the Albums of the Year on 21st July).

"Whilst all the artists have benefited to some degree, the most pronounced lift in sales has been for critically acclaimed albums by the likes of Glasvegas and Friendly Fires, which the music-buying public has been encouraged to revisit," Gennaro Castaldo of HMV told Hot Press. "Other beneficiaries include relative newcomers such as The Invisible, Sweet Billy Pilgrim and Speech De Belle, whose music is now being discovered by a much wider audience."

The biggest uplift so far in HMV stores has been for self-titled debut albums from Glasvegas (1103%), The Invisible (935%) and Friendly Fires (626%), ahead of Sweet Billy Pilgrim's Twice Born Men (600%) and Speech Debelle's Speech Therapy (175%).

Shortlisted albums from La Roux (La Roux), Florence and the Machine (Lungs) and Kasabian (West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum) have also performed well, actually selling in greater quantities by comparison, but as these recordings only recently came out, and thus start from a much higher sales base, the week-on-week percentage lift in demand by comparison is less pronounced.

"The impact of the Barclaycard Mercury Prize becomes more pronounced every year, and the award is now arguably the most significant platform for promoting new and independent music amongst the record-buying public," Castaldo added.

"Just being shortlisted can give an artist a huge boost in profile and sales, particularly if they then go on to give show-stealing performances at the awards show. Previous recipients of the Prize have gone on to enjoy spectacular increases in demand for their albums, sometimes by as much as ten-fold, whilst the foundation for much of Elbow's amazing success last year was undoubtedly the band winning the Prize – which really set them on their way."