The Nielsen year-end SoundScan report is in and you might be surprised at who the top selling artist of 2008 is.

Before we get to the top selling artist of 2008, there are some other music facts that we found interesting enough to share; specifically the fact that digital album sales are soaring and vinyl is making a comeback in a BIG way.

In 2008 physical album sales continued to decline, dropping -8.5% to 535.4 million; on the bright side, digital album sales soared 32% to 65.8 million units sold.  It’s no shocker that digital appears to be the future of the music industry. What was a bit of a surprise to everyone is the fast that vinyl records are making a huge come back; sales on vinyl jumped 89% last year to 1.88 million LPs sold. Even though illegal music downloading still rapidly occurs, the music industry should try to focus on the positives – Overall total music sales increased over 10% in 2008 to over 1.5 billion.

How do you break all those albums sold, into genres?  Well I’m glad  you asked because we have the numbers to satisfy your curious mind.

In 2008 the biggest nose dive award goes to Country music, declining in sales 24% in 2008 with sales at 47,657 million.  Rap wasn’t so far behind with a dive of almost 20% with sales of 33,410 million units.  R&B which is about 80% of the music you hear on the radio wasn’t that far behind either with a 20% decline, however the genre managed to sell 77,014 million albums.  While all genres saw a drop in sales in 2008, it was the rock related ones that declined the least. Alternative CD sales fell -8.7% with 80,919 million units sold. Rock declined -6.5% with 139,666 units sold, and metal saw the smallest decline in sales with only a -4.7% drop in 2008.

HORNS UP!
\m/  {o,,O}  \m/
Now for the stats you’re dying to read:

Biggest sellers of 2008:

1. Taylor Swift (4,003,000)
2. AC/DC (3,418,000) * a Walmart exclusive*
3. Lil Wayne (3,382,000)
4. Coldplay (2,691,000)
5. Metallica (2,466,000)
6. Kid Rock (2,405,000)
7. Jonas Brothers (2,340,000)
8. Sugarland (2,063,000)
9. Nickelback (1,953,000)
10. Jack Johnson (1,895,000)

Top 10 vinyl albums sales ended up in 2008:

1. In Rainbows/ Radiohead
2. Abbey Road / Beatles
3. Chinese Democracy / Guns N’ Roses
4. Funplex/ B-52’s
5. Third/ Portishead
6. In the Aeroplane… /Neutral Milk Hotel
7. Dark Side of the Moon/ Pink Floyd
8. Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes
9. Death Magnetic/ Metallica
10. O.K. Computer/ Radiohead

Interesting music facts for 2008:

• Music purchases in 2008 reached 1.5 Billion, marking the fourth consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.4 billion (2007) vs. 1.2 billion (2006) vs. 1 billion (2005).
• Music sales exceeded 65 million in the final week of 2008, representing the biggest sales week in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The previous record was Christmas week 2007 with 58.4 million music purchases.
• Overall Album sales (including Albums and Track Equivalent Album sales) declined 8.5% compared to 2007.
• Total Album sales declined 14% compared to 2007.
• Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” is the best selling Internet album for the year with 144,000 sales.
• During 2008, more Vinyl Albums were purchased (1.88 million) than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. The previous record was in 2000, with 1.5 million LP album sales. **Note that more than 2 out of every 3 vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during the year.

2008 was a crappy year for the U.S. economy, but the record industry seems to be weathering the storm fairly well – After all people need something to listen to while they sob into their beer.

Photo Source: Big Machine Records