Andre Yoskowitz
3 Jan 2012 1:06
According to a report from the BPI, digital music continued its gradual growth in the UK, but physical CD sales fell so far that overall the industry saw another decline.
CD sales fell 13 percent to 86.2 million while 26.6 million digital albums were sold, a 24 percent jump. In total, album sales fell 6 percent from 2010.
Fifteen albums had over 100,000 digital sales, led by Adele's "21."
The BPI blamed the UK government and piracy for the figures: "While other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of the US tech giants. The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again - a creative crunch that will destroy jobs."
While piracy, as it has for the last decade (at least), played a part in the decline, the data seemed to imply that new streaming services were digging into sales, as well. Spotify and other unlimited music streaming services popped up everywhere in 2011, and normally cost the same as one album per month for access to millions of tracks on your PC or smartphone.
Finally, individual tracks continued to see strong sales, as consumers download popular tracks for $1.29 without bothering to purchase the rest of the album.