Album sales down despite rock music revival

A rock revival has helped to push album sales to a new high – but overall music sales look likely to be down on the year in the UK, figures showed today.

The 12-month period to September 2003 saw 232 million albums sold to UK music stores by record labels – the largest amount ever recorded.

The figure was up 2.7% on the previous year, according to figures released by the British Phonographic Industry.

Big sellers have included Permission To Land by The Darkness and soft rock compilation Power Ballads.

The most recent quarter saw 50.4 million album sales – the first time more than 50 million have been sold other than the traditional boom time prior to Christmas.

However heavy discounting by stores has meant that despite a growth in album sales over the year the value is actually down by 2.2%.

And coupled with another disastrous performance by the singles market, the overall value of music sales in the past 12 months is down 4.6% on the previous year.

The number of singles sales or that period – 37.2 million – is down 31% on the previous year.

The best-selling album of the quarter was the compilation Now 55, with Permission To Land by The Darkness the second biggest seller.

The BPI is confident that the last few months of the year could see sales pick up.

A spokeswoman said: “The final quarter of the year is always a key period for the record industry with many important releases aimed at the Christmas market.

“This year is no exception with a strong release schedule featuring new material from Kylie and Busted as well as collections from the Beatles’ archive and REM.

And she said that there could be an upsurge in singles sales in the near future.

“There are some very exciting developments ahead with EMI launching two track CD singles which will help to encourage more sales.”