Presumably thanks in the main to CMU's unwavering support, Coldplay had the best selling album in the world in 2005, with 'X&Y' selling a total of 8.3 million copies (and that's before you count all the bootleg copies that were probably sold in Eastern Europe and China). We might question the musical merits of Chris Martin et al from time to time, but you can't question those figures in terms of commercial success - and I guess it's nice to have a British act topping a US dominated list of top world sellers.
'X&Y' was some 600,000 units ahead of the second best seller, which came from Ms Mariah Carey, who sold 7.7 million copies of her career revitalising long player 'The Emancipation of Mimi'.
The other albums to appear in the world sales chart for 2005 ran thus: 50 Cent's 'The Massacre' (7.5m), Black Eyed Peas' 'Monkey Business' (6.8m), Green Day's 'American Idiot' (6.4m), Madonna's 'Confessions On A Dance Floor' (6.3m), Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' (6.1m), Eminem's 'Curtain Call' (5.5m), James Blunt's 'Back to Bedlam' (5.5m) and Robbie Williams' 'Intensive Care' (5.4m).
Those stats come courtesy of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry as part of a wider report on music industry sales in 2005. That report revealed that the value of digital music sales jumped to $1.1 billion last year, over double what they had been in 2004 ($400 million). But, the trade body added, that boom did not fully compensate for a 6% drop in global CD sales or the 4% drop in music DVD sales, meaning overall music revenues were down some 3%.
Various reasons were given to explain the overall decline, though obviously it had nothing to do with senior executives failing to respond with suitable speed to a changing market - oh no.
IFPI chairman John Kennedy told reporters: "Physical music sales declined again for a combination of reasons, including digital and physical piracy, competition from other entertainment products and the shift in consumer spending to online and mobile. In 2006, we expect to see continued growth online and more innovative mobile services attracting music fans into the legal digital market. All our member record companies are now aggressively licensing and marketing music in digital formats."