Pop Music

Via Billboard:

Rapper Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" (Cash Money/Universal) is far and away the top seller of 2008, netting 2.88 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. However, it's the first time the best selling album of the year has sold less than 3 million since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

Coldplay is a distant second with "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" (Capitol) at 2.15 million, followed by Taylor Swift's just-released "Fearless" (Big Machine with 2.11 million. Swift's self-titled 2006 debut is No. 6 on the year-end chart with 1.6 million.

As we've been hearing for several years, overall music sales were up, though digital downloads accounted for more than all of the difference, as CD sales continued to decline. The SoundScan report they sent me sez overall sales - albums, singles, video and digital tracks - topped 1.5 billion in 2008, up from about 1.3 billion in 2007. But physical album sales were down 8.5% (584.9 million to 535.4 million), while digital track sales went from 844.2 million to 1.07 billion, an increase of 27%.

For what it's worth, vinyl album sales went wild, relatively, although they're still small - 1.88 million, up from 990,000, an 89% jump. And, perhaps reflecting hard times, album sales during the holiday season were down 19 %, from 98.7 million to 80.1 million. I hope it wasn't something I said.

 Tags  2008 Music sales year-end

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