Few music fans will have heard of Ashley Abram but over a quarter of a century he has been the quiet creator of a British pop phenomenon.

His ear for a hit has been behind the bestselling album series in British pop — one that has managed to fight off the arrival of downloads and buck the trend of plummeting music sales.

While far from a superstar DJ, Mr Abrams is and always has been the man with the sole power to choose the tracks for Now That’s What I Call Music!, the pop compilations that celebrate their 25th anniversary this year.

After 71 volumes and 20 international versions, the Now! album series has sold 100 million copies. The three British editions released last year sold a total of 2.6 million copies, according to the industry body the BPI. The top-selling artist of the year, Duffy, sold 1.7 million copies of her Rockferry album.

The philosophy hasn’t changed since Sir Richard Branson proposed compiling the biggest hits by Culture Club, Duran Duran and their platinum-selling contemporaries on one mega-value Christmas album in 1983.

When the first Now! album was a hit, Sir Richard hired Mr Abram, a singles buyer for Woolworths, as an independent consultant. He would choose the hits and ensure that there was no favouritism in the selection.

“It was supposed to be for a couple of albums, maybe three . . . and I’m still here 25 years later,” Mr Abram said.

Every Easter, summer and Christmas a new version is released containing about 45 songs chosen by Mr Abram. They retail for £12 on CD in stores, where other albums are currently heavily discounted, and £17 on iTunes. His mission is to get a cross-section of what has been, or soon will be, in the charts in a package that appeals across the board. The albums are deleted from sale after three years, turning the early compilations into collectors’ items.

Peter Duckworth, who looks after the marketing and distribution of the Now! albums at EMI, which owns the brand, said: “He is independent, and even though some record company bosses might demand their artist is on the TV adverts or the opening track, Ashley just cannot be influenced.”

Once, Morrissey shared bed space with Samantha Fox, but the musical range has narrowed to female-skewed “pop, dance, urban and X Factor”, reflecting current chart trends.

While new albums by Dido and Kaiser Chiefs flopped in a shrinking CD market, the Now! brand has become a recession-proof saviour for a struggling record industry. It has even managed the transition to downloads.

“People use the Now! browser on iTunes as a trusted filter to choose tracks to build their song libraries,” Mr Duckworth said. When iTunes reduced the price of a complete Now! album, sales soared eightfold.

Before Now!, the compilation market consisted of dodgy Top of the Pops albums, featuring original hits reconstructed by session musicians owing to licensing restrictions, and opportunistic releases by K-Tel and Ronco. Tracks were often butchered in length to squeeze on to a vinyl disc.

Sir Richard adapted the “Now that’s what I call music” tagline from an old bacon advertand merged artists from his Virgin label with EMI’s hitmakers.

On Monday that long-deleted first 1983 album, featuring the Cure and Tracey Ullman, will be re-released on CD. The spelling mistakes on its sleeve have been corrected, however.

EMI is now hoping to exploit the brand, which has become a major seller in the United States. A computer game is now in production.

The format has never managed to lure one of the biggest pop stars of its era, however.

Madonna remains one of the few never to have appeared on a Now! compilation. This may be because she does not approve of the “pile ’em high” Now! philosophy, or it may be simply a licensing issue with her record company, Warners.

But she’ll be welcome to appear on Now! 72 — just as long she scores a big hit.

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