Music Week research reveals that Duffy and Adele are the only artists with debut albums released this year that have to date shifted 300,000 units or more, illustrating how it is becoming increasingly harder to reach the platinum milestone with a new act.

The figure compares to five acts who arrived at the same landmark at this same stage in 2007, while there were nine platinum-selling debut artists in 2006 over the same timeframe and six in 2004 and 2005.