 Leon Jackson's When You Believe was the Christmas number one |
The number of music downloads sold in the UK in the final week of 2007 was double the total of 12 months earlier. The popularity of MP3 players as Christmas gifts was partly responsible for driving demand, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said.
In total there were 2.95 million downloads in seven days, the highest ever recorded for any weekly period.
And when the whole of the year was taken into account, 77.5 million downloads were sold in the UK in 2007.
'Larger than expected'
This compares to the 5.8 million download purchases recorded in 2004, the year in which the practice of legally downloading music took off.
However, while more than 90% of the UK's singles sales are now downloads, CDs remain the overwhelming leader in terms of album purchases.
About 95% of albums are still sold as discs rather than digital files.
"Recent years have seen a boost in download sales in the week after Christmas but this was a larger increase than expected," said BPI spokesman Matt Phillips.
Among the factors for this rise were the wider variety of tracks now available and the "ease and convenience" of legal digital music services, he added.
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?