Album Sales Tumbled 9.5 Percent In 2007

LOS ANGELES (AP) — New music industry data show the number of U.S. albums sold last year tumbled 9.5 percent from 2006, even as the number of digital tracks sold soared by 45 percent.

The Nielsen SoundScan figures released Thursday signal ongoing recording industry woes amid a multiyear decline sales of CDs — the industry's chief music format.

The firm says about 500.5 million albums in CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were sold last year, down 15 percent from 2006's total.

Including digital track downloads, 584.9 million albums were sold, a decline of 9.5 percent from 2006.

The number of digital tracks sold totaled 844.2 million, up 45 percent from 588.2 million in 2006.

Overall music purchases — including albums, singles, digital tracks and music videos — hit 1.35 billion units, up 14 percent from 2006's total.