Adele Most Downloaded iTunes Artist in Europe, Denies Throat Cancer Rumors
British-born pop singer Adele is the first artist in history to hit a million downloads on iTunes in Europe.
In less than a year, her hugely successful sophomore album, 21, broke Apple’s European album download record, according to The Telegraph.
“This is a positive news for the music industry and Apple’s iTunes has done a great job of helping to sell digital albums,” said independent music analyst Mark Mulligan, formerly of Forrester Research.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
“However, mass buying of digital albums is swimming against the tide and is getting rarer. Most people now like consuming music as singles and a growing number either stream songs or watch the videos on YouTube. Fewer and fewer people download entire albums to own,” Mulligan added. "Downloading albums to own is becoming a less and less important part of how fans and artists interact.”
Mulligan observed it was becoming increasingly relevant how many hits an artist has on YouTube and how many Facebook fans they had.
Adele underwent vocal chord microsurgery earlier this month to repair bleeding from a benign polyp.
She canceled all of her remaining live dates in 2011, as she scrapped 10 scheduled dates in North America and six shows in the United Kingdom to have the surgery.
"Sorry I haven't written for a while," posted Adele on her official blog following the operation. "Thank you for all your positive thoughts and get well wishes. I'm doing really well, on the mend, super happy, relaxed and very positive with it all."
Rumors spread around the Internet that Adele’s surgery was for throat cancer, but her representatives quickly quelled it.
"We would like to reiterate that Adele is to undergo surgery for a hemorrhaged vocal chord. All reports regarding any other condition are 100 per cent false,” said the singer’s representatives in a statement to US Weekly.
The music video for her smash radio hit “Someone Like You” is one of the top videos on YouTube, with over 35 million views, and almost 600,000 shares in the last seven days alone, according to BuzzFeed.
