Michael Jackson helps increase music sales in 2009

Digital music sales increases have offset the decline in the “old technology” versions, increasing by 16.1% while Physical sales dropped by 12.7% year on year.

The 2009 figures for music sales from Nielsen SoundScan are a refreshing change of message from the “recession bites” stories from most business sectors.

The mix of what sells has changed, but overall music sales are up to reach a total of 1.54 billion units for the year in the USA. The 2.1% increase overall covers CDs, cassettes, LPs, digital albums and music videos.

The big gains were all in “new media”:

digital album sales gained 16.1%
digital track sales climbed 8.3%
1.1 billion digital tracks were sold in total
digital-to-vinyl LP sales grew 33% to 2.5 million

All the moaning - in print and on the web - about the “terrible” state of the music industry now sounds false, especially the high-profile claims:

accusations of piracy “destroying” the music industry
hand-wringing that the global recession will send music companies to the wall
old media saying online services like Google are plagiarists

See our exclusive chart after the jump ...

We say music sales have increased due to the web and the flexibility it provides. Thanks to Web 2.0, music listeners are no longer dictated to by the labels and their music magazine marketing. The chart of the big sellers of the year presents a perfect example of how the industry has changed:

best selling music artists of 2009

Michael Jackson’s Number Ones sold 2.3 million copies alongside the big sales of his back catalog following his death, giving Jackson the number one spot for the year. The Beatles also made a big impression with a back catalog, selling 3.3 million for the year. The music from both may have been made in a different era, but it appears the new generation of listeners can recognise great music when they hear it.

The important new stars in the music world - in other words, the talented girls - took the other three places in the top five albums of the year. Taylor Swift continues her meteoric rise in popularity, winning awards by the armful as well as the public dollars. Lady GaGa cements her place as an important new star for both music and style, while Susan Boyle did destroy the over-hyped acts being promoted by the music companies, but in the nicest possible way!

Now that we can be free of marketing hype and some of the shocking repeat playlists of old-school radio stations and tv channels, the modern music listener can make informed choices. We create our own playlists, download millions of quality podcasts and create our own radio station or tv channel on our iPod, iPhone, laptop or home PC.

Yes, we still spend money on music but it’s now an informed choice. We find what we like and spend where we like, no longer continually herded towards Coldplay or some other almost-but-not-quite artists that clutter record company hype demands.

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