Staying in America, it was Black Friday last week, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday often seen as the first big Christmas shopping day in the States - ie it's the day everyone in America goes to the shops. Given this trend, sales figures on Black Friday are seen as a key indicator as to how the US retail sector will fair during the most important period of the year, Christmas.
Many US media are reporting that, despite all the economic doom and gloom, the retail sector generally performed quite well on this year's Black Friday. However, indications are that's not so true for music retail, where sales were down between 10% and 30% on last year.
Certainly some of the big album releases expected to perform well didn't shift anywhere near the number of units expected. Some thought Kanye West's '808s & Heartbreak' would top 950,000 units but it sold closer to 450,000. The expectations for Guns N Roses' long awaited comeback album 'Chinese Democracy' were also high, maybe as much as 750,000 units, though early stats suggest sales more like 250,000.
Over here, however, and despite the lack of turkey dinners and united calls to shop, last week was actually a good week for music retail. According to Music Week, new releases from Rhydian, The Priests, Only Men Aloud, The Killers and the aforementioned Guns N' Roses and Kanye West albums meant last week's album sales were up 39.4% week on week. Which is nice.