Artists enjoy Mercury Prize sales bounce

LONDON (Reuters) - The 12 bands and artists nominated for the Nationwide Mercury Prize have seen album sales soar by almost 500 percent, music retailer HMV said on Wednesday.

The albums have enjoyed on average a fivefold increase in sales since last week's ceremony, the biggest ever post-awards increase since the event began 17 years ago.

"Untrue" by Burial recorded a 1004 percent rise in sales, while the winning album, Elbow's "The Seldom Seen Kid", saw an increase of 688 percent, resulting in a leap of 54 places to number 7 in the Official UK Album Chart.

"A lot of music fans will be aware of the band and their music, but may not have bought one of their albums before," said HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo.

"The band look set to be one of the biggest ever beneficiaries of winning a Nationwide Mercury Prize when measured in commercial terms."