D'Angelo, Joe (10 November 2004). "Nelly, A Perfect Circle No Match For Now 17". MTV News . Retrieved 26 April 2008. At least five "best-of" compilations including selected songs from the entire Now! series. Now Decades, Now Years, Now 25 Years, Now 30 Years, and Now That’s What I Call Now! (100 Hits From 100 Nows) are these five albums, but there have been other albums, like Now No. 1's, which also cover the entire Now! series. Dee, Johnny (8 August 2008). "Compilation series NOW That's What I Call Music! is 25 years olf". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 July 2018.

At least one tie-up with Smash Hits magazine in 1987, called Now Smash Hits. [22] ( Smash Hits later went on to release their own compilations). The idea for the series was conceived in the office of Virgin Records in Vernon Yard, near Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London, by the head of Licensing and Business Affairs at Virgin Records (1979–1990) Stephen Navin, and General Manager (1983–1988) Jon Webster. [2] The concept was taken to Simon Draper (managing director at Virgin Records) and then Peter Jamieson (managing director of EMI Records (1983–1986)). Jamieson had similar plans to launch such a compilation, and he agreed to the partnership. The deal was negotiated and finalised on Richard Branson's boat moored in Little Venice. [3]Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 January 2011 . Retrieved 29 January 2011. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) a b "About NOW That's What I Call Music". EMI Music. Archived from the original on 30 January 2013 . Retrieved 9 March 2012. Now That's What I Call Music!' Hits 60: The Secret Behind Its Survival in the Streaming Era". Billboard. 27 October 2016 . Retrieved 7 January 2020. Now Dance– a series in its own right, these compilations originally consisted of 12" mixes of current hits. They now focus on radio mixes of recent dance hits, and a Very Best of Now Dance compilation has been released. The Now series in Portugal is a joint-venture between the three major international publishers present in Portugal – EMI, Sony and Universal. In 2010, it was announced that total sales of the series, not counting the extra editions, topped one million copies in Portugal. [32] Through Volume 21 of the series, the multi-volume sets have included 414 national and international artists and a total of 787 different songs, ranking in an impressive four gold and 19 platinum records.

Sisario, Ben (10 May 2010). "Bob Mercer, Executive Who Signed the Sex Pistols, Dies at 65". New York Times. Now That's What I Call Music! has released 61 physical albums since 1997, the latest one released July 2020 and further albums were released on streaming platforms only. The series is compiled in co-ordination with New Zealand's top record companies. The series is one of the highest selling compilations in New Zealand music history ( RIANZ) with multi-platinum album sales. Prior to this, there was an unrelated Now That's What I Call Music Series by Warner Bros. Records which only released three albums from 1992 to 1993. Robbie Williams is the artist to be featured the most often in the regular Danish Now series, just as he also is in the UK Now! series. He has appeared ten times in the Danish series.

Statistics

EMI Asia has also released Now Dance (2000), Now The Essential Collection (2003), Now + volume 1 (2004) and Now + volume 2 (2005). Now has been seen in Israel, starting in 1999. The first three albums are double discs. Now 4 was the first single disc and the rest in the series are also single disc.

The series is often called Now Asia since Now 1 and Now 2 are from EMI Hong Kong, Now 3 and Now 4 are from EMI Malaysia, Now 7 is from EMI Taiwan and Now 5, Now 6 and Now 8 are from EMI Asia. The Indonesian versions of the albums are slightly different from the Asian ones. The most successful album in the series to date is Now That's What I Call Music! 5, which was certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA in 2000. [38] Since the fourth volume, the compiler for the U.S. series has been Jeff Moskow. [39] The first Finnish Now That's What I Call Music was released in 2003 where it replace the Absolute Hits series. The albums are released as double discs. There have also been spin-offs including Now That's What I Call Music Pop Hits and Now That's What I Call Dance Music. The first installment of the product line into Canada was released in 1988. The second installment of the product line was released in 1995. Beginning with the second installment of the series, repertoire was licensed from Universal, Warner and EMI. Songs from Sony and BMG was not included on any editions of the series in Canada. Since the second installment of the series, Universal, Warner and EMI have formed a joint venture together and generally take turns to release the series. From the years of 1996 to 2009 the series released an annual compilation usually in the late summer months. However, beginning with Now 15, there have been two editions each year which usually take place in early winter and late summer.

Credits (2)

MiniDiscs started with Now That's What I Call Music! 43 in 1999 and ended with Now That's What I Call Music! 48 in 2001. [17]

EMI were a label on all volumes. Until Now 75, the logo they used was simply the "EMI" logo. From that volume onwards, "EMI TV"'s logo was used instead.Due to the Universal Music Group's purchasing of EMI in 2012, a share of the Now albums' rights were transferred over to Sony Music Entertainment (a partner in the original Hits Album brand). [25] UMG used the brand of their catalogue subsidiary Universal Music TV ( UMOD) on the series before reverting to the EMI brand by the 2020s on some of the Now spin-offs [20] like Now Yearbook ’83 Extra, [26] Now That’s What I Call Christmas [27] and the re-issued Now That’s What I Call Music 10. [28] [29] Vinyl editions of the main series ended in 1996 with Now That's What I Call Music! 35, [15] though spin-offs like NOW presents the 70s was being released as a five LP vinyl boxset by Sony/EMI in 2021. [16] Now Music is a Danish record label set up especially to release Now That's What I Call Music! albums in Denmark reaching the nineteenth edition in November 2007 not making anymore after that. As well as the Now regular series there have also been spin-offs including Now Big Hits, Now Christmas, Now Summer, Now Clubbing, Now Dance and Now Hip Hop. In the Beginning, There was Ronco… | East of the M60". Mancunian1001.wordpress.com. 24 September 2010 . Retrieved 11 September 2013. As of November 2023, the most featured artists are Kylie Minogue with 32 followed by Robbie Williams with 31 singles, Calvin Harris with 30, David Guetta with 28, Rihanna with 27, Katy Perry with 22 and Girls Aloud with 21. This does not include any uncredited appearances in groups or on charity records. [13] Formats [ edit ]