Labels Buoyed By Digital Sales

CD sales have continued to fall this year, but significant gains in online sales have kept overall music business sales in line with last year's totals. According to the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, physical album sales so far this year totaled 370.5 million units, down 8.3% from the 404.2 million sold during the same period last year. However, that drop was mostly offset by a huge increase in digital album sales, which climbed 115% to 22.6 million sold through September. The online sale of individual tracks also soared 72%, to 418.6 million.

By adding digital albums and "track equivalent albums" (10 digital tracks = an album) to physical sales, a total of 434.9 million "albums" have been sold this year through OCTOBER 1st, compared to 439.2 million last year. 

This year's biggest seller? The "High School Musical" soundtrack on WALT DISNEY RECORDS has sold 3.1 million copies so far, followed by RASCAL FLATTS' "Me And My Gang" on DISNEY'S LYRIC STREET label at 2.5 million.

Overall, the UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP is the market share leader at 31.3%, followed by SONY BMG MUSIC at 26.8%, WARNER MUSIC at 19.2%, the independent sector at 12.7%, and EMI MUSIC at 10%.

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