Rock revival boosts UK album sales

LONDON, UK (BPI) - A revival in rock music has helped increase album sales, but overall music sales are down, new figures show. Albums such as Permission To Land by The Darkness and a compilation of soft rock, helped the sale of 232 million albums last year, a record amount. Even UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is a fan of The Darkness!

But heavy discounting by stores has seen the total value of music sales drop 4.6%, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Singles sales fell 31% in the 12 months up to September, the BPI said.

But in the most recent quarter, 50.4 million albums were sold - the first time more than 50 million have been sold before the Christmas boom period.

Album sales rose by 2.7% on the previous year. Big sellers included Permission To Land by The Darkness and the compilation album Power Ballads.
The best-selling album of the quarter was the compilation Now 55.

The actual value of albums sold in the 12-month period up to September was down by 2.2% however, due to shops dropping the price of albums.
Another disastrous performance in the singles market was a major factor in the resulting drop in overall music sales.