Lil Wayne Sells the Most Albums in ‘08, Sales Still Pitiful
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne’s (major) release of this year, sold 2.88 million copies and garnered the top position as far as yearlong album sales go. If that number seems sad to you, you’re right. It is. This is the first year in Nielsen SoundScan history that the bestselling album of the year didn’t sell more than 3 million copies.
Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends came in second place, selling 2.15 million units, and Taylor Swift was close behind, selling 2.11 million copies of Fearless (which is atop the Billboard charts again this week). And, at #4 is Kid Rock, who moved about 2 million copies of Rock N Roll Jesus. Kid Rock’s album was not available on iTunes, so kids were forced to step away from their computers and go shopping for the album.
AC/DC proved it was possible for a band to move albums even if said album is a Wal-Mart exclusive release – their album Black Ice came in at #5 with 1.92 million copies. This is an even more impressive feat when you consider that digital retailers weren’t allowed to touch it.
According to Billboard, album sales are down from last year by 14.4% (428.4 albums sold in 2008 compared to 500.5 million in 2007). Digital albums made up 15.4% of sales, which amounted to 65.79 million albums, which is up from 2007, when digital albums were 10% of the market.
This is not good news if you work in the music industry and you’ve been worried about your job. And since labels are promising not to sue (as many people) anymore, what’s next? There is a silver lining: digital track sales hit the 1 billion marker this year, totaling 1.07 billion, with the top track of ’08 being “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis, which moved 3.37 downloads.
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