The best-selling album in the United Kingdom is Greatest Hits, a 1981 compilation album by the British band Queen (pictured). As of July 2016, it has sold more than 6.1 million copies, of which approximately 124,000 have been from downloads. An album is defined by the UK's Official Charts Company as being a type of music release that features more than four tracks and is longer than 25 minutes in duration. Sales of albums were first published on 22 July 1956 by the music magazine Record Mirror, who compiled a weekly chart of the country's five biggest-selling records. Since then, three albums have gone on to sell more than five million copies each: Greatest Hits by Queen, Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. The top eight best-selling albums have each sold at least four million copies. Of the UK's top 60 best-selling albums, more than half are by British artists. Fourteen are by American artists, with the rest being from Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Jamaica. (Full list...)