HOW many copies does it take to get a number one album in Australia?

This week British hit maker Ed Sheeran topped the ARIA album charts with just 4646 copies of his album x sold nationally.

The album, which hit No. 1 on over 10,000 sales upon release five weeks ago, took advantage of low sales and no big new releases to return to the top.

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But this week’s figures are not even the lowest-selling No. 1 of the year.

Beyoncé’s self-titled album holds that unwelcome record with just 4290 copies giving her a No. 1 in January, which is traditionally one of the lowest-selling months.

While INXS’s The Very Best is the most popular album 2014 so far, it has been subject to the extremes of this year’s sales figures.

After the INXS miniseries the album sold over 22,000 copies one week to hit No. 1, and a few weeks later it sold as few as 4460 copies ... also to reach No.1.

It’s not all doom and gloom on the chart — Coldplay sold 34,087 copies of Ghost Stories in its first week of release, while Sia sold just over 12,000 copies of her album 1000 Forms of Fear to hit No.1.

In the US 1000 Forms of Fear was the lowest-selling No. 1 in the US in two years with just 52,000 copies sold across America: enough to top the Billboard Hot 100.

It’s another sign of how illegal downloading is crippling the music industry and comes on the back of reports the Australian Government is going to finally crack down on internet Service Providers.

Google ‘Ed Sheeran x’ and the first thing that comes up is ‘download’ which takes you to all manner of sites to illegally obtain the record.

It can be streamed (legally) for free or listened to in its entirety on YouTube — none of which count for the ARIA chart, which only registers streaming for individual tracks.

Sheeran’s new single Don’t is No. 8 on this week’s ARIA Streaming Tracks chart.

Sheeran’s previous album, +, has sold over 300,000 copies in Australia and is at No. 41 this week after 112 weeks in the chart.

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British dance act Example has already prepared for his new album Live Life Living to suffer from modern music consumption methods.

The album only made it to No. 80 in Australia this month, despite his history of festival appearances and hit singles.

“The album is dead now,” Example said. “People just cherry pick songs and stick them on a playlist. That’s how people enjoy music now, they make playlists.

“If you look at Calvin Harris as a model he’s sold a million albums in the UK. Which is phenomenal even though the UK has 70 million people. But you can get a No. 1 album in the UK now with 15,000 sales on a low week which is ridiculous. Calvin has had nine Top 10 singles from that album (18 Months). An album like that 10 or 20 years ago would have sold 15 million copies. If Calvin is the most successful you can be with mainstream dance music it doesn’t really give much hope in terms of what anyone else can sell if they’re on a smaller scale. My record label have said they’ll be happy with 100,000 sales of this album. And that’s in the UK with 70 million people, that doesn’t even take into account global sales.”

The UK album chart now factors in streaming, but Example said the methodology is flawed.

“We’re in a strange place where no one knows how to interpret streaming as far as chart positions go. One thousand plays on Spotify equals one sale. Which is ridiculous. One download on iTunes is worth 1000 plays on Spotify. That doesn’t value Spotify much. I’m thinking in a few years CDs won’t sell at all, iTunes will have to be cheaper to compete or become a streaming service like iTunes radio.”

Meanwhile record labels will be hoping a new Taylor Swift album, due to drop later this year, will once again reactivate music sales.

This year could also see a new Adele album — her 21 album bucked every trend and was the first album to sell one million copies in Australia in over 10 years — proof that people will buy albums if they think it’s a quality product.

New albums by Ariana Grande, Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, Rihanna, the Madden Brothers, Madonna and Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga should all help sales in the rest of the year.

Visitors Sam Smith and Lily Allen have already returned to the top of the iTunes chart this week after TV promotion while on tour in Australia.

TV ads have reactivated albums by Paloma Faith and Gabrielle Aplin, both now getting radio attention for songs radio initially ignored.

This Friday will see Voice winner Anja Nissen compete with Angus and Julia Stone for positions in the Top 5 of the ARIA chart.