A top-selling digital song of 2010 was “California Gurls” by Katy Perry (4.4 million).
U.S. music sales fell 2.4% in 2010 to 1.5 billion units, as CD sales plummeted nearly 20% while digital track sales were up just 1%, according to a report from Nielsen and Billboard. Digital track sales were 1.17 billion in 2010, up from 1.16 in 2009. While CD sales fell precipitously last year, digital album sales rose 13% to 863 million. The report notes that digital music accounted for 46% of all U.S. music purchases in 2010, up from 40% in 2009 and 32% in 2008, and digital track sales broke the 1 billion sales mark for the third straight year.
The top-selling digital songs of 2010 were “California Gurls” by Katy Perry (4.4 million) and “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train (4.31 million), while the top digital albums were “Recovery” by Eminem (852,000) and “Speak Now” by Taylor Swift (488,000).
The top selling artists of 2010, based on digital track sales, were Eminem (15.7 million), Ke$ha (13.5 million), Lady Gaga (11.9 million), Katy Perry (11.8 million) and Black Eyed Peas (11.3 million); the cast of Fox’s “Glee” also sold an impressive 10.7 million tracks.
The report also notes that vinyl album sales were up 14% in 2010, to 2.8 million, a record in the Nielsen SoundScan era.
