18/08/2003

Price cuts fuels boom in album sales

Albums are leaving the shelves in record numbers, according to quarterly data released today by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

A 12% rise in unit sales lifted the album market to record levels of more than 228 million units. While the popular Now! series provided the bestseller of the quarter (Now! 54), other second quarter releases which featured in the Top 10 bestselling list included White Stripes’ critically acclaimed ‘Elephant’ and the fourth studio album from Welsh rockers Stereophonics’ ‘You Gotta Go There To Come Back’.

CD albums, with an average retail price of £9.79, have never been cheaper in the UK, say the BPI. However, this continued downward pressure on prices meant value lagged behind unit growth and the further decline in the singles market meant overall value recorded modest growth of only 0.1% in the second quarter.

Annual sales of the traditional singles formats shrank further to 41 million units. The reasons for this fall were shrinking price differentials between singles and albums, competition from other entertainment products and illegal downloading have all played their part, according to the BPI.

(gmcg)

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