Album sales increase 7% through the first half of 2004; growth seen for next several years.
U.S. album sales for the first half of 2004 are running 7 percent ahead of last year's midway point, putting the recording industry well on track to end a three-year slump, Nielsen SoundScan reported Thursday.
Album sales during the first six months of this year totaled 305.7 million units, up from 285.9 million sold from January through June of 2003, according to the retail tracking service.
With the heaviest retail period still to come in the holiday season, the music industry is expected to finish 2004 above 2003's tally, after three straight years of declining sales blamed on rampant piracy, a sluggish economy overall and competition from other media.
The best-selling albums have come from a diverse range of acts, led by Usher, whose blockbuster release "Confessions" has spent nine weeks at the top of the charts and sold 4.5 million copies, according to SoundScan. Rounding out the top five were jazz/pop vocalist Norah Jones, country star Kenny Chesney, rock band Evanescence and the hip-hop duo OutKast.
Meanwhile, growth in digital downloads has exploded, with nearly 54 million tracks purchased during the first 26 weeks of this year. At that rate, Internet song sales are on their way to crossing the 100 million threshold by year's end, Nielsen SoundScan said.
By comparison, SoundScan reported just 19.2 million paid downloads during the second half of last year -- the first six months it began tracking digital distribution. On a weekly basis, digital downloads have grown from 300,000 to an average of about 2.4 million.
OutKast led the pack for online song sales with more than 321,000 downloads of its hit single "Hey Ya!" since June 2003, followed by Maroon5's "This Love," Hoobastank's "The Reason," Britney Spears' "Toxic" and No Doubt's "It's My Life."
In terms of album sales, SoundScan said the genres showing the hottest year-to-year growth through June were classical, Latin, alternative and country.
According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report cited in Daily Variety, growth in recorded music is projected to continue during the next several years.
Rapper Jadakiss was the latest artist to top the U.S. pop album charts, selling nearly 246,000 copies of his sophomore solo release "Kiss of Death" its first week in stores. Usher's "Confessions" held steady at No. 2
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