via musically.com

The BPI has released figures claiming that while combined album sales in the UK were down 3.5% in 2009, single sales increased by 32.7% with a record of more than 152 million sales – smashing the previous record of 115.1 million, which was set in 2008.

Music Week points out that there were 53 chart weeks in 2009 as opposed to 52 in 2008 – like for like, overall album sales were down 6.8% for 2009 instead. Meanwhile, the BPI says 16.1 million digital albums were sold in 2009 – 12.5% of the overall albums market – while 98% of those 152 million singles sales were digital.

“Music fans are clearly responding to the explosive growth of digital retailers and outlets selling and streaming music in the UK,” says CEO Geoff Taylor.