How "Now That's What I Call Music!" Built a 43-Year Compilation Dynasty — And Its First Crack
British compilation series Now That's What I Call Music! released its 124th volume in the UK this summer, continuing a run that has been unbroken since 1983. Far Out Magazine used the milestone to revisit how the franchise began and how it has kept going on momentum rather than the runaway profits of its early years. According to the report, three more volumes are still planned for 2026.
From all-platinum to the first miss
The series' commercial record is extreme by any standard: starting with volume one in 1983, the first 101 UK volumes all went platinum (300,000+ copies sold), and 51 of those cleared triple-platinum.
2019 marked the turning point. That year's volume 102 — led by Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" and Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved" — sold just over 100,000 copies, earning only gold and becoming the first entry in the franchise's history to miss platinum. Producers initially treated it as a one-off dip, but volumes 103 and 104, released later the same year, failed to reverse the slide. When the pandemic hit the following spring, some in the industry predicted the compilation series was finished.
The market that made Now possible
Now wasn't the originator of this business model. It followed a logic labels had already used since the 1960s with repackaged "Greatest Hits" releases, and multi-artist compilations were already common by the 1970s: Ronco put out vinyl and 8-track compilations like Get It On! and Sound Explosion!, while K-Tel had lines including 20 Power Hits, Super Bad, and Summer Cruisin'.
The direct trigger was Ronco's Raiders of the Pop Charts, released in early 1983. Unlike earlier compilations of already-established hits, this one featured brand-new singles from popular artists — and still topped the UK charts. The series' longtime song selector Ashley Abram told the BBC in 2009 that this approach became "like a template" for Virgin Records and its key partner EMI, prompting Virgin Records to formally enter the market in 1983.
The underrated "pre-made party playlist"
The series faced skeptics early on, with critics calling it a cash grab that made listeners pay again for singles they already owned or had heard endlessly on the radio. Far Out argues this underestimates the appeal of a "pre-curated party playlist" — letting listeners skip the album's filler tracks and keep only the hits, without having to make their own mixtape. This listening habit took shape in the 1980s, and the Now franchise's dominance of the global market is generally considered to have peaked only in the 2000s.