The inaugural album graced the United Kingdom's music scene in 1983, with the United States following suit in 1998. The first two volumes were not released on compact disc, and all subsequent releases were either single, double, or triple disc sets.

All series with the exception of United Kingdom and the United States have been discontinued, New Zealand had two more albums released as a playlist only on Spotify, South Africa had three more albums released as a playlist on Spotify under DJ Kurtis.NOW 73’ features 16 major current hits from today’s hottest artists, including Maroon 5, Taylor Swift ft. the world’s bestselling multiple-artist album series will be dropping two new releases on the same day. The series has generated sales exceeding 250 million albums worldwide, including more than 100 million in the U. Each numerical NOW release also features “NOW Presents What’s Next” tracks, previewing tomorrow’s biggest hits.

Each release is issued as a limited edition mini-hardback book, with the CDs in sleeves forming the pages of the ' yearbook' which contains an introductory overview of the year, original 7" single artwork, trivia, chart positions and a quiz. In November 2018, the Now team took over the " 100 Hits" brand from Demon Music Group, and in 2019 and 2020, the Special Editions series was effectively rested while 24 different Now 100 Hits compilations were issued in very quick succession, until the end of November 2020. In the age of discovery, fans trust NOW to bet right on artists who are ready to take the next step. With its track record previewing tomorrow’s biggest hits, “NOW Presents What’s Next” has introduced NOW’s enthusiastic highly-engaged audience to major developing artists including Billie Eilish, Walk The Moon, Hot Chelle Rae, Hunter Hayes, Capitol Cities, A Great Big World, George Ezra, and Shawn Mendes, among others.The latter contains a new retro-70s Now logo design and artwork which complements its 80s sister Yearbook series. The album includes music from Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Miley Cyrus, and more and is the ultimate throwback collection.

The Now Yearbook series continues both forwards, with Now Yearbook 1985 issued in November 2022, and backwards, with the release of Now Yearbook 1979 in September 2022 (an Extra followed in October). NOW 82 features 16 major current hits from today's hottest artists including GAYLE's "abc (nicer)," Lil Nas X's "THAT'S WHAT I WANT," Taylor Swift's "Message In A Bottle (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)," tracks from Post Malone, The Weeknd, Katy Perry, Doja Cat, Tate McRae, and more. NOW 82 features 6 hot tracks from David Kushner, Jesse Murph, Justus Bennetts, Alaina Castillo, Blessing, and Eddie Benjamin. A lot of mainstream electronic music was left out of this volume including hits from Avicii, Sub Focus, Far East Movement, LMFAO and Skrillex. With an astounding global sales figure of over 250 million copies, this franchise has solidified its place as a cultural phenomenon and an essential cornerstone of contemporary music consumption.These compilations are very similar to the anniversary series, however, they contain a lower amount of tracks and retailed much cheaper than the former series. and Walt Disney Records have once again teamed up for a special NOW album collection showcasing beloved Disney music hits. The tie-in television programmes are a month by month video playlist of tracks, from one year previously featured on a Now Yearbook album, with Bruno Brookes presenting. NOW 82 does not include any Billboard Hot 100 number ones, but the closest entries on that chart were the first and ninth tracks, “abc (nicer)” and “Big Energy”, both peaking at number three. Now Dance 92 (2 November 1992) Uniquely, 2-LP/2-MC/CD* with 12" mixes,*single CD with abridged tracklisting and 7" edits.

The frequency in which they were released also varied from year to year; initially, and most frequently across the series, there would be one Now Dance volume per year, but in 1994 for example, there were four volumes released, and in 1996, there weren't any Now Dance compilations released.Deleting this artist may remove other artists and scrobbles from your library - please handle this with caution! It’s got to be my favourite song from his album Nothing But The Beat And probably my favourite Nicki Minaj feature on any song. In February 2023, 12" mixes all taken from the first three Now Dance compilations, originally released in 1985, 1986 and 1989, were collected on a special 4CD and 3LP set, Now Dance: The 80s, with artwork inspired by the original Now Dance 86. NOW Classic Rock features 17 major hits from back in the day including Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith and several other classic rock anthems. It’s just very unattractive and I don’t know what they were going for here, if it had any connection with the upcoming London Olympics that year, but it’s one of the poorest designs in the whole series.