Digital Music Sales Continue to Grow

Physical CD sales continue to drop, but sales of digital music are surging, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.

From the period of January 1 to July 1, nearly 230 million albums were sold, a 15 percent drop over the same time last year. However, digital music sales increased by 49 percent to 417 million. When combined, album sales only dropped about 9.2 percent.

The best selling album this year is American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry's "Daughtry," which has sold some 1.7 million discs. His latest track "It's Not Over" is the sixth biggest digital song.

Other popular albums include Norah Jones' "Not Too Late" and Linkin Park's "Minutes to Midnight."

On the digital side, Gwen Stefani's "Sweet Escape" tops all others with 1.8 million tracks sold. This is followed by Gym Class Heroes' "Cupid's Chokehold," Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder," and "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" by Fall Out Boy.

Analysts say the rapid uptick in digital tracks and the continuing drop in album sales not only has a lot to do with the popularity of the iPod, but also the industry's focus on promoting hit singles. Consumers buy only the songs they know, instead of buying the entire album.