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February 09, 2005
Keeping the Future of CD Sales in the Digital Age in Proper Perspective
US sees growth in CD sales market
US CD sales rose by 2.3% in 2004 - the first rise in four years - despite the growing popularity of legal digital music downloads.
The CD format still accounts for 98% of the 666 million albums sold, according to research company Nielsen Soundscan. A total of 140 million digital tracks were legally downloaded last year, equivalent to 14 million albums.
R&B star Usher was the biggest-selling artist with his album Confessions selling eight million copies alone. Other top sellers of the year were Norah Jones, Eminem and country stars Kenny Chesney and Gretchen Wilson.
The US recording industry has attempted to tackle music piracy by suing those it believes are the worst offenders and closing down websites which offer music without permission. Although it was slow to react to the problem the launch of services such as iTunes and the relaunched Napster has persuaded many to use the legal sites.
The end of the year saw downloads reach a weekly high of 6.7 million tracks, up from 300,000 in mid-2003. [FULL ARTICLE]
All is not grim. Read the entire BBC article for a glimmer of hope and this bit of editorial dressing-down Pressing Issues in the Music Industry Today (or How I Learned to Adapt and Make Lots of Money!) for a call to a fresh perspective.
Posted by BIGBAER at February 9, 2005 02:59 PM
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