Similar good news over here with new figures released by the
BPI showing album sales were at an new all time high in 2004.
UK retailers sold 163.4 million albums last year, a 2.6% increase on 2003's previous all-time high of 159.3 million. Among the artists who helped fuel this rise in music sales are Keane,
Snow Patrol, U2, Scissor Sisters, Maroon 5, Katie Melua, **Il
Divo, Usher, The Streets and Eminem** - so hurrah for them.
And while single sales continued to decline, the arrival of legal downloads in the UK have boosted sales of single tracks.
Some 5.7 million tracks were sold through legal download services in 2004, and such was the boost in download sales around Christmas that last week, for the first time, download sales surpassed single sales.
Commenting on the new figures, BPI boss Peter Jamieson told
CMU: "These figures show that the investment by UK record companies in new British music is paying off. Despite huge competition for consumer spending and the ever-present threat of piracy, music is more popular than ever with the British public. And with the public's fast-growing appetite for downloads, the future looks bright for the single."