2012 Music Industry Report Finds Music Purchases At All-Time High

Adele Had The Year's Top Album

NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN has released 2012 year-end U.S. music sales figures for the 12-month period of JANUARY 2nd, 2012 through DECEMBER 30th, 2012.
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For 2012, sales of albums and track equivalents are down slightly at -1.8% vs. 2011. Digital Albums are up 14% and Digital Tracks are up 5%. CD sales declined 13%.

"Overall music purchases surpassed 1.65 billion units in 2012, up 3.1% vs. the previous record high set in 2011, driven by digital music sales, which continue be a key growth element within the market," said NIELSEN SVP/Client Development DAVID BAKULA. "Digital Album sales are up 14.1% and Digital Track sales are up 5.1%, but despite being down 12.8%, physical is still the dominant album format.

"The big artist stories of the year are ADELE and TAYLOR SWIFT," continued BAKULA. "ADELE's album, "21," is the first album ever to be the top seller of the year for two consecutive years, and TAYLOR SWIFT's "Red" has sold more than 3.1 million copies in only 10 weeks, debuting with the highest weekly sales of any title since 2002."

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP was the top company in overall sales. The top 5:

               2012     2011
UMG       32.41%  29.85%
SONY     30.25%  29.29%
WMG      19.15%  19.13%
EMI          6.78%   9.62%
OTHERS  11.42%  12.11%

2012's Top Selling Albums

1. 21/ADELE - 5,256,000
2. Red/TAYLOR SWIFT - 3,892,000
3. Up All Night/ONE DIRECTION - 2,334,000
4. Believe/JUSTIN BIEBER - 2,142,000
5. Some Nights/FUN. - 1,923,000
6. Overexposed/MAROON 5
7. Pink Friday...Roman Reloaded/NICKI MINAJ - 1,657,000
8. Babel/MUMFORD & SONS - 1,605,000
9. Tailgates & Tanlines/LUKE BRYAN - 1,600,000
10. Take Me Home/ONE DIRECTION - 1,565,000

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