CD album sales rise, but illegal downloading hits singles sales in 2003 : 9:2:2004

CD albums sales rise 5.6% in 2003, says BPI

New British artists and falling retail prices helped drive shipments of CD albums up by 5.6% last year, helping the UK buck the worldwide decline in recorded music sales, according to figures due to be published by the BPI later this month.

Albums by artists such as Dido, Busted, Will Young and the Darkness helped drive the increase. Meanwhile price-cutting means 62% of single CD albums now sell for £9.99 or less.

Year-end shipment figures show that total album shipments were up 4.9% by volume to 236m and 2.1% in value to £1,112m last year.

“This is an exceptional result considering the huge pressure the recorded music market is under worldwide,” says BPI chairman Peter Jamieson.

Between 1998 and 2002 (the last full year for which data is available) worldwide sales of recorded music fell by 18%. Over the same period the value of sales in the UK rose by 6%.

“2003 figures show that the British music industry continued to fly the flag for the world,”  says Jamieson. “The UK record industry has been going through a very strong patch for new talent as evidenced by the success of debut artists by albums such as Katie Melua, Lostprophets, the Darkness, Jamie Cullum and many others.”

Illegal downloads hit singles sales

The one cause for concern in the year end figures, says Jamieson, is the singles market in which unit shipments were down 30.7% to 36.4m and value was down 33.6% to £64.4m compared with 2002.

"Paradoxically all I can really see in the singles market is growth, sadly, however, most of it via illegal downloading. If we can transfer this theft to the new legitimate sites, we could see soon a return to the golden age of singles sales.” says Jamieson