Top Albums of 2008

It is a well known fact that the record industry has been suffering financially in recent times. In fact, physical album sales, the recording industry's top source of revenue, have dropped in the U.S. seven out of the last eight years.

However, the BBC News reports that the overall sales for U.S. music were up this year, featuring more than 70 percent of music sales attributed to digital downloads. Though the total sales of physical media formats (meaning actual CDs or cassette tapes) dropped, the overall sales figures for music in both physical and digital formats rose from $1.36 billion in 2007 to $1.5 billion in 2008. These numbers were helped out mostly by the large increase in the sale of music in digital formats; digital album sales were up 32 percent and digital singles were up by 27 percent.The sales of vinyl records were also up remarkably this year, increasing their sales numbers by 89 percent from 2007.

The top selling album of this year was Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter III, selling 2.87 million copies. His album was followed by Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, Taylor Swift - Fearless, Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus, and AC/DC's latest - Black Ice.