July 10, 2007 14:10

UK album sales fall in first half of 2007

Record sales drop but industry confident

Sales of CDs fell in the UK by ten per cent in the first half of 2007.

The British Phonographic Industry’s figures show that 6.5m fewer albums have been sold then this time last year.

Digital albums sales have increased by two million, though this has failed to make up the shortfall.

Meanwhile, sales of individual tracks online have grown by 50 per cent, although downloads only count for between ten and 20 per cent of the whole UK market.

The drop in sales follows recent news that high street retailer Fopp closed 81 branches, while its rival HMV had seen its profits half.

However the Entertainment Retailers Association, which chains like HMV and Virgin are a part of, told BBC News that the drop was not a cause for concern yet.

"To be honest these figures are much better than we had feared," said co-chairman Jim Batchelor. "The release schedule in the first half of this year was very slow, with few big acts delivering albums. The fact that, in spite of it all, we're still selling around 10m albums a month shows the resilience of demand."