ARIA REPORTS DIGITAL SALES GROWTH

The Australian Recording Industry Association, ARIA, has revealed some rises and some falls in official sales figures just released for January to December 2008. First for the good news – and it’s all uphill for the sales of digital products throughout 2008, with a rise of over 35% in digital sales. Sales of digital albums led the increase, posting a massive 261% rise in sales over the twelve month period.
However, whilst the digital side of things are displaying solid growth, sales of physical CD fell by 12% over the same time. In the fourth quarter of the year, however, sales of physical CDs rose by an amazing 57% week on week when compared with the previous year. This strong rise in sales was due in part to major album releases by artists like Britney Spears, Coldplay and Beyonce, along with multiple platinum sellers Kings Of Leon, AC/DC and Pink.
In the face of the current economic climate, ARIA Chairman Ed St.John believes that the year ahead for the music industry could still prove to be a rosy one, “I think the essential message here is that music is a very resilient product in times of economic instability,” he says, “Not only are we seeing strong and consistent growth in digital music, we’ve also seen a strong surge in spending on music – both physical and digital – over the last quarter of 2008 and the first weeks of 2009.”
Album sales for the first eight weeks of the new year are up by as much as 75% week on week when compared to the same period in 2008.

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