Music Album Sales Decline, while Singles Continue to Rise

U.S. album sales for the first half of 2012 slumped after seeing growth last year, while digital track sales rose, according to music sales figures released by Nielsen SoundScan.

At mid-year 2012, album sales were down 3 percent from 2011 at 150.5 million units sold over the last six months. Digital single song sales, however, notched a 6 percent rise with 698 million tracks downloaded since January.

Overall music figures for physical and digital album and single sales showed a 4 percent increase, with 853.2 million sold so far in 2012.

via Reuters