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In the UK, CD sales fall, digital album downloads continue rise

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 03 Jan 2012 1:06 User comments (3)

In the UK, CD sales fall, digital album downloads continue rise 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.

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3 user comments

13.1.2012 02:10

most industries have seen a decline in sales we are in a recession ffs

23.1.2012 12:34

While seeing a decline in sales is true, the whole story is not being told. These record companies are seeing good profits from all digital medium.

33.1.2012 12:50

also factor in the fact that many people dont have cd players these days and use mp3 players / ipods and docking stations that only play digital media

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jan 2012 @ 12:51

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