While overall U.S. music unit sales, which includes songs, albums, vinyl, music videos and ringtones, climbed 10.5% to 1.5 billion in 2008, total album sales -- including 10-song digital track groupings -- fell 8.5% to 428.4 million, according to a report from Nielsen SoundScan.
Sales of physical albums like CDs fell 20%, to 362.6 million, and are off by 45% since 2000. Meanwhile, digital album sales were up 32% in 2008, to 65.8 million units, and digital track sales grew 27% to reach a record 1.07 billion.
The top-selling digital album of the year was Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" (617,000 units), while the top digital track was Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" (3.4 million units). The final week of 2008 was also the best week ever for music sales, which saw consumers make 65 million music purchases.
Nielsen's report also noted that more vinyl albums were sold in 2008 (1.88 million) than in any other year since its SoundScan service launched in 1991, and that two of every three vinyl albums were purchased at independent music stores.
The top-selling vinyl album of the year was Radiohead's "In Rainbows," followed by The Beatles' "Abbey Road."
Recommended Comments