Coldplay become first artist to break 1m US digital album sales barrier

They may not be on Joe Satriani's iPod, but Coldplay are certainly the kings of the digital music age. The band have become the first act to sell over one million full digital albums in the US.

Based on Nielsen SoundScan data, Coldplay have moved 1.358 million digital albums in the States and their label, EMI, reports sales from around the globe totalling two million digital albums worldwide. And for Coldplay, the stats keep getting better and better: their 2008 release Viva La Vida, is now ranked as the top-selling digital album in SoundScan history. (Although we suspect a certain King Of Pop might stand a chance at beating that figure within a matter of weeks.)

It should be noted that these just-released sales figures of Coldplay's worldwide stats of more than two million full digital albums includes the download sales of four of the band's complete studio albums, a live disc and an EP, and is not calculated on the track equivalent basis (TEA) that SoundScan uses to calculate its digital album chart. Viva La Vida, Coldplay!

Meanwhile, to put a dampner on the record, Hoopla have come up with another explanation: They write: "Coldplay is one of the biggest bands in the world, so it makes sense that they are the first band to reach 1,000,000 digital album downloads. Excuse me, Coldplay is the first band to reach one million legal downloads. Millions and millions of dollars have been stolen from mainstream artists like The White Stripes, Kanye West and Taylor Swift. All right, so here’s what we know about Coldplay fans, given their downloading habits: They have dispensible income, don’t know how to get away with illegal downloading (aka torrent technology) and they are middle aged. Because the question that Napster (and Radiohead a decade later) raised still stands today: Why, if one can get something for free, would they pay for it? Answer: They don’t know the way to get away from it."

Coldplay are currently touring North America in support of their most recent album, 'Viva La Vida'. The tour hits San Diego's Cricket Wireless Amphitheater tonight (July 16). Meanwhile, the band are gearing up to debut the video for their latest single, 'Strawberry Swing', on Monday (July 20) via Babelgum.com. The video features frontman Martin as an animated super hero.

More on the album sales record at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks mimixxx]

Pictures of Coldplay at Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA (13th July 2009):