The U.S. CD sales rose by 2.3% in 2004 which is the first rise it has seen in years. This boost of CD sales comes even as legal music download stores are gaining popularity. CD's still count for 98% of all album sales according to Research Company
Nielsen Soundscan.
666 million albums were sold in 2004.
140 million digital tracks were downloaded also. 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 U.S. recording industry has been hammering on Internet piracy which it blames for the loss in sales over the last few years.
It seems that more users are being persuaded to use the legal options such as
iTunes and
Napster, even though they have all sorts of
DRM protections that limit the freedom you have in the music's use. Downloads of whole albums has been calculated at
5.5 million copies, with rock band
Hoobastank one of the most popular choices. Nielsen Soundscan said the fastest growing music genres were Latin and country.
Source:
BBC News
Written by: James Delahunty @ 7 Jan 2005 0:30
