Music sales fall despite digital growth. UK music fans are increasingly opting to buy hit albums from acts such as Adele as digital downloads.
Photograph: NBCU Photobank/Rex Features British music fans are increasingly opting to buy their albums as digital downloads, but overall sales declined in the third quarter. The music industry continued to suffer from the decline in sales of physical formats such as CDs, according to figures from the Official Charts Company for the three months to September, and the total market was down 11.4% year on year to 21.8m units sold. Digital downloads accounted for 28.2% of all UK albums sold in the third quarter, up 24.2% on the previous year, to reach 6.1m. Sales of physical albums, including CD and vinyl, were down 20.5% year on year to 15.5m units. Overall sales of singles and albums in the first nine months of 2011 were up on the same period last year, from 193.7m to 202.9m units sold.
However, that figure masks an overall fall of almost 4m album sales year on year. Newsbeat - CD sales plummet as digital sales continue to rise. By Steve Holden Newsbeat reporter in Southampton CD sales have fallen by a quarter year-on-year CD sales have seen a significant year-on-year drop in the first three months of 2012, according to figures from the BPI and the Official Charts Company.
Sales fell 25% from 20.5 million in the first three months of 2011, to 15.3 million this year. Digital sales continue to rise with almost a third of all albums now being bought digitally. The Entertainment Retailers Association says more needs to be done to make the CD more appealing. Outdated? "It's a worry the products we're selling are perceived as possibly outdated," said Director General Kim Bayley.
Conor and Rhys Reid bought Adele's 21 for their mum's birthday "So we do need to update the product. " The organisation represents stores like HMV and online sites such as Amazon. She denies the CD is dying out and points out that they're still the market leader in terms of album sales. CD interest? James Naughtie on local newspapers: Change or decay? 26 April 2012Last updated at 03:06 ET As Johnston Press, one of the biggest regional publishers, predicts that more titles will disappear in the next few years, the Today programme's James Naughtie, a former newspaper man himself, examines the challenges and opportunities facing the UK's local press.
A few years ago, the newspaper and radio entrepreneur Sir Ray Tindle heard on the grapevine that the weekly West Wales Observer had gone bust, and was closing. Was it for sale? He bought it on the spot, and persuaded the staff to get out the next edition at two days' notice. The Pirate Bay cut off from millions of Virgin Media customers.