USA! USA! Unfurl the “Mission Accomplished” banners! Cue “Don’t Call It a Comeback” and cue all the hack music bloggers that use it in every possible news story about unexpected gains in the music industry! But no guys, seriously, let’s not call it a comeback per se because this date only applies to the first half of 2011, but: for the first time in seven years, music sales are up.
Is this due to cheap Amazon sales promotions like the $0.99 one for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way? Part of the ever-increasing craze for all things 90s? A result of the fact that the world ends next year so we might as well spend all our money on music, fine wine, and an online campaign to make teen heartthrob Ian Somerhalder fall in love with me? It’s too soon to tell, but Nielsen Soundscan data shows that album sales (physical and digital) are up nearly 1%, digital album sales are up 19%, digital track sales are up 11%, and overall music sales (albums, singles, music videos) are up 8.5%. Nielsen’s figure for total album sales also includes individual tracks sold together as an album. In other news, Adele and Lady Gaga rank number one and two respectively in terms of most albums sold, with Adele selling 2.5 millions albums and Lady Gaga with 1.5 million. Congrats America.
