US CD music sales fall

SALES FIGURES for music CDs dropped by 20 percent in the first three months of the year.

According to Nielsen SoundScan figures, 89 million CDs were sold from the start of the year through March 18 as compared with 112 million CDs sold during the same period in 2006.

Sales of individual songs in digital format on the Internet rose from 242 million tracks during those months last year to 288 million this year. The bad news was that the sale of digitised albums fell from 119 million tracks during that time period in 2006 to 99 million during the first three months of this year.

Analysts told Associated Press, that while the increase in digital tracks is encouraging, it seems that consumers are sending a message to the record companies that they don't like albums. The days of three singles on an album of less commercial stuff might be coming to a close. µ