The music industry may have reached a stagnant point in terms of overall sales of recorded music, but sales of music through digital means are skyrocketing while sales of physical albums slowly decline. While sales of actual CDs, tapes, and records are down almost five percent so far in 2006, digital album sales are up 126 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers compiled in a Reuters report. There’s still a huge gap between the two media — over 270 million physical albums have moved this year, compared to 14.7 million digital albums — but the market share of digital music is increasing, from 2.2 percent last year to 5.2 percent this year. Oh, and the year’s top-selling album to date? Disney’s High School Musical, with 2.6 million in sales.
Talk: Is this shift just the result of all the iPods people bought for Christmas, or are people starting to actually prefer digital music? COMMENT
