Album Sales in US Continue to Drop

For the eighth time in nine years album sales in the US plummeted. The total percentage of album sales dropped 12.7 percent to 373.9 million during the 52-week period.

The top-selling artist of 2009 was Michael Jackson, while the number one album was by Taylor Swift, followed by an album by Susan Boyle.

In 2008, the total sales declined by 14 percent. In 2000, 785.1 million albums were sold, but since then sales have plunged 52 percent, mostly because of piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment media such as video games.

The death of Jackson in June seemed to boost record sales; he was responsible for 8.3 million of the albums sold. Swift was in second with 4.6 million sold, mostly for Fearless, which was the biggest seller of 2009 and the third biggest seller of 2008.

Online downloads has been increasing the past few years, with a 27 percent increase in 2008 and a 45 percent increase in 2007, but it only climbed 8.3 percent in 2009.