Good news this, I guess. The hype surrounding the Mercury Music Prize have this week helped boost the sales of both Richard Hawley and Lou Rhodes' nominated albums, even though they didn't win the Prize. HMV report both albums have seen sales increases of over 300% (although that stat could sound more impressive than it really is - if they sold 9 copies last week, a 300% increase isn't actually that huge - though they're both great albums, so let's hope the figures are much higher than that).
Elsewhere in sales stats news, midweeks suggest that Robbie William's new single 'Rudebox' - the first release from the more eclectic and possibly less accessible new album of the same name - is not selling as well as you'd expect since physical copies went on sale on Monday. Reports suggest just 7000 copies have been sold so far, putting Robbie behind the current number one from Justin Timberlake, and other new releases from Nelly Furtado and Scissor Sisters, the latter of which entered last week's singles chart at number four on digital sales alone.