The modern music industry’s version of a four-leaf clover is the diamond-status album. Sure, some releases still reach that vaunted 10 million mark after several years (or in the case of Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory a dozen) on the charts, but it’s an increasingly rare feat.

But in an era when YouTube views, concert ticket sales, magazine covers, endorsement deals and product lines, TV appearances and digital single downloads have become the new measures of an artist’s success, how did Adele pull it off? And is she the last of a dying breed of mega-sellers? Read more