 Jay-Z topped the US charts with The Black Album, said to be his last |
US album sales have rebounded after suffering a sales slump for much of the year, with a slew of new releases. Fifteen million albums were sold in the US in the week ending 16 November, compared to 13.7m a year earlier, said industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
It followed major hip-hop releases from rapper Jay-Z, the late Tupac Shakur and G-Unit featuring rapper 50 Cent.
Album sales during five of the last six weeks in the US have been higher than they were a year earlier.
Big releases
It has prompted analysts to conclude that CD sales will top last year's fourth quarter US sales of 221m, boosted by further big end-of-year releases.
Topping the album chart, Jay-Z's The Black Album was released two weeks earlier than planned after illegal copies were circulated on the internet.
With songs produced by Eminem, Jay-Z says The Black Album will be his final album. It sold 463,000 copies in its first week of release.
New albums by Britney Spears and Blink-182, and The Beatles' Let It Be... Naked album are expected to bolster this week's US sales.
One-Minute World News 
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