Music Sales Rise for First Time in 7 Years
For the first time in seven years, the music industry actually saw some sales growth.
According to the Mid-Year Music Industry Report from Nielsen and Billboard, overall music sales for the first six months of 2011 increased 8.5% year over year. The biggest gain came in sales of digital albums, which rose from 42.2 million sales in the first half of 2010 to 50.3 million in 2011, a 19% increase. Sales of digital tracks grew 11% over the same period, from 597.4 million to 660.8 million.
Digital sales weren’t the whole story, though. Every category tracked by Nielsen has seen growth this year, including catalog albums and vinyl LPs. And CDs still account for two thirds of all album sales. Overall music sales, which encompass everything from digital tracks to full albums in every format, totaled 821 million units for 2011.