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Top-Selling Albums of 2008

January 5, 2009

Overall album sales are down again this year, but here are the Top-Selling Albums Of '08, according to Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan:

1. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III - 2.88 million
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - 2.15 million
3. Taylor Swift - Fearless - 2.11 million
4. Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus - 2 million
5. AC/DC - Black Ice - 1.92 million
6. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift - 1.6 million
7. Metallica - Death Magnetic - 1.57 million
8. T.I. - Paper Trail - 1.52 million
9. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static - 1.5 million
10. Beyonce - I Am ... Sasha Fierce - 1.46 million

Notes:

• It's the first time the best selling album of the year has sold less than 3 million since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

• In 2008, there were 428.4 million albums sold, down 14.4% compared to 500.5 million in 2007.

• Digital downloads of albums: 65.79 million albums this year (15.4% of the overall album market), compared to 50.01 million (10% of the album market) in 2007.

• Physical CD albums made up 360.6 million albums this year (84% of the market), compared to 449.18 million (90% of overall album sales) in 2007. That's a 19.7% drop in CD sales.

• Vinyl albums sold 1.8 million, more than any other year since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.

More data: Digital Boosts 2008 Sales To New Mark.

Previously: 2007, 2006.

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Comments

"It's the first time the best selling album of the year has sold less than 3 million since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991."

What's more: that Lil Wayne album sold 1 million of that 2.88 million in the first week. That's a BIG drop-off from first week sales.

, Jan 5, 2009 11:12AM

Holy Back to the Future, Batman! Gold and Platinum sales are meaningful again!

, Jan 5, 2009 11:24AM

With this Taylor Swift thing Nashvile and New Country radio have sold their souls to the devil.The devil being 12 to 17 year old girls with disposable income.About 5 or 6 years ago new country had some fun artists like Gretchen Wilson(Redneck Woman) and Big and Rich(Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy). I though maybe they'd have some staying power but they put out some real shit as followups. Taylor Swift is a cultural low we've haven't seen since the dominance of Tiffany.

, Jan 5, 2009 1:15PM

i actually saw someone buy a metallica album at best buy the week it came out. i couldn't believe that someone was buying an actual physical cd.

, Jan 5, 2009 5:01PM

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