Mid-year album sales bring US market into the black

For the first time since 2004 mid-year sales figures for US album sales are in the black, according to Music Week.

Stateside album sales increased week-on-week by 7 per cent during the last seven days of the year’s half-way point with 6.34m units sold. Furthermore, these figures indicated a 14 per cent increase on the same week in 2010, leaving year-to-date sales just under 1 per cent better than they were at this stage 12 months ago.

Nielsen SoundScan has reported that 155.46m albums were bought in the US this year up until July 3, compared to 153.9m albums sold over the same period in 2010. The year’s running total has now been higher than 2010’s tally for six consecutive weeks.

With album sales clearly on the increase, sales in the singles market have proved to be even more impressive, boasting figures that reveal an 11 per cent increase in the first half of 2011.