Music sales are up 50% on 5 years ago according to new figures released today by Nielsen SoundScan.
For the first time ever, music sales exceeded 1.5 billion units, a raise of 2.1% over 2008 and 50% over 2004.Digital music now accounts for 40% of music purchases in the USA.
The news is not all good news for everyone. Retail of physical product was down 12.7%, offset by a 16.1% increase for digital album sales.
Rock music was the most popular genre of the 2009 with 124,164,000 units sold.
The most successful label was Universal with 30.2% of the market.
The biggest selling album was ‘Fearless’ by Taylor Swift (3,217,000 units sold).
The best selling artist was by album sales was Michael Jackson (8.286,000 units sold).
The best selling digital song was Black Eyed Peas ‘Boom Boom Pow’ (4,762,000 units sold).
The best selling digital artist was Lady Gaga (15,297,000 units sold).
