BeatNonStop A Weblog by Chris Macias Bee pop music critic Music geek (n. myü-zik 'gEk) 1: A person who proudly wore KISS commemorative pajamas in third grade. 2: A person who owns multiple copies of the same album, still buys vinyl and has a room dedicated to 2,000 or so CDs and records. 3. A person who wrote a five-part series about traveling with a local band in their stinky van - and loved every minute of it. 4: Chris Macias, the Bee's pop music critic, serving Sacramento's music scene since 1999.

BACK TO THE BEATNONSTOP HOME PAGE

« Memories, light the corner of my mind | | Zzzz ... huh!? »

January 4, 2007

The results are in ...

Sales of digital music are stronger than ever, while overall album sales continue to slump. So sayeth the year-end report from Nielsen Soundscan, the music tracking service that keeps tabs on this kind of stuff.

Total album sales were 588.2 million, down from 618.9 million in 2005 (a 4.9% drop). But check out these numbers on digital music sales: more than 581 million songs were downloaded (legally, that is), which is up from 352.7 million downloads in 2005 (a 65% increase); Digital album sales were up a whopping 101% (32.6 million, up from 16.2 million in 2005).

2006 was also a Texas-sized year for country music. Rascal Flatts was the top selling artist of 2006, logging more than 4.9 million in album sales. The No. 2 spot went to the Man in Black – Johnny Cash, that is – who sold more than 4.8 million albums. Rascal Flatts had the No. 2 selling album of 2006 (3.4 million copies of “Me and My Gang”) but were denied the top spot by that pesky “High School Musical Soundtrack” (3.7 million).

Other interesting factoids include the spike in sales for classical music, which was up 22.5% over 2005. Rap music sales fell by 20%, and that snoozy “new age” genre saw a 22% drop from 2005. And the top selling ringtone of 2006 was “Smack That” by Akon. Excellent …

So here you go, the Top 10 selling artists and albums of 2006:

ALBUMS

1. “High School Musical” soundtrack (3,719,071)
2. “Me and My Gang,” Rascal Flatts (3,479,994)
3. “Some Hearts,” Carrie Underwood (3,015,950)
4. “All the Right Reasons,” Nickelback (2,688,166)
5. “Futuresex/Lovesounds,” Justin Timberlake (2,377,127)
6. “Back to Bedlam,” James Blunt (2,137,142)
7. “B’day,” Beyonce (2,010,311)
8. “Hannah Montana” soundtrack (1,987,681)
9. “Taking the Long Way,” Dixie Chicks (1,856,284)
10. “Extreme Behavior,” Hinder (1,817,350)

ARTISTS

1. Rascal Flatts (4,970,640)
2. Johnny Cash (4,826,320)
3. Nickelback (3,160,025)
4. Carrie Underwood (3,016,123)
5. Beatles (2,812,720)
6. Tim McGraw (2,657,675)
7. Andrea Bocelli (2,524,681)
8. Mary J. Blige (2,485,897)
9. Keith Urban (2,442,577)
10. Justin Timberlake (2,437,763)

Posted by cmacias at 1:00 PM | Comments |