Music biz limps to tepid fourth quarter

Fueling that increase, digital track downloads stand at 612.2 million, up 46.3% from the 418.6 million scanned during the first nine months of 2006. So far this year, 26 track downloads have broken the million-unit mark; last year at this time, only 10 tracks had hit the million-unit milestone. In contrast, 20 albums have broken the million-unit sales mark so far this year (digital and physical combined), versus 28 titles last year.

Overall, when the 61.2 million track-equivalent albums sold in the first three quarters of 2007 (using a formula where each 10 digital tracks sold counts as an album) are added to the 35.8 million digital albums sold, the digital format now totals 97 million digital album-equivalent units -- or 24.3% of the 398.6 million album units tallied when track-equivalent sales figures are added to physical album scans.

Meanwhile, in the digital album format, so far this year 14 titles have broken the 100,000-unit sales barrier -- led by Maroon 5's "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," which has slightly more than 223,000 scans. Last year, in the corresponding time period, only six albums had achieved that digital sales distinction.

Universal Music Group VP of sales analysis David Bakula points to another notable digital achievement. In the second quarter, Maroon 5's release became the first to hit 100,000 digital downloads in a week. And in the third quarter, Kanye West's "Graduation" upped the ante when it scanned 132,000 digital albums in its debut week.

"The 102,000 digital downloads of the Maroon 5 album was almost 25% of the release's market share in the first week," Bakula says. When digital can hit 25% of a big-selling title's market share, he says, "it almost seems like we have reached the tipping point. All of a sudden, digital is your biggest account, and that is something we have never seen before."

Reuters/Billboard