Sharp Decline For UK Album Sales In 2010


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Sales of albums in the UK fell for the sixth year in a row in 2010, according to figures released by the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI).

The combined results of digital and physical sales show a drop of 7% from the 128.9 million figure of 2009 to last year’s 119.9 million. Despite the results, separate results show a continued rise for digital sales, which rose by a whopping 30% over the past twelve months.

Speaking to the BBC, digital analyst Mark Mulligan said the disparity between the rise of digital sales when compared to the overall slump shows the expanding digital industry is still unable to fully compensate for the ongoing decline in physical purchases. “The simple fact is that CD sales are declining much more quickly than digital sales are growing,” he remarked.

Unsurprisingly, physical sales of singles have also seen a sharp fall, dropping to just 1.9 million in 2010 from 2.5 million. However, the rise of digital downloads has seen the combined physical and digital market actually enjoy its biggest sales of all time, raking in 161.8 million.

The fortune of physical formats is unlikely to be aided by the recent news of high street retailer HMV‘s decision to close 60 of its outlets across the UK this year.


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