Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III was the best-selling album of last year, a year in which total album sales fell 14 percent as consumers continued to buy single songs online, such as top-seller Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis.
Total US music purchases rose 11 percent last year to 1.51 billion units, driven by online spending. Album sales fell to 428.4 million from 500.5 million a year earlier, researcher Nielsen SoundScan said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
ONLINE SALES
Online sales of individual tracks from stores such as Apple Inc’s iTunes topped 1 billion for the first time, rising 27 percent, Nielsen said. Music companies such as Warner Music Group Corp count on digital revenue from downloads and ring tones to counter Internet piracy and shrinking demand for CDs.
“We’re moving towards the inevitable digital environment,” Ted Cohen, a Los Angeles-based media and entertainment consultant with TAG Strategic LLC, said in an interview. “Whether it’s on a cellphone or a computer, people now want instant access to music.”
Nielsen tracks unit purchases, not dollar sales of music. With spending going more online and consumers cutting their purchases of compact discs, industry revenue has declined.
WARNER MUSIC
Warner Music last month reported fiscal 2008 sales fell 2 percent after adjusting for currency changes.
Digital album sales rose 32 percent to 65.8 million, slower than the 53 percent rise in 2007 and not enough to counter the drop in CD sales. Over the past two years, album sales have declined 27 percent.
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
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‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
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