Groban's Noel album was released in the US in October

The 26-year-old, whose hits include You Raise Me Up, had the best-selling album of the year with Christmas compilation Noel, which sold close to 3.7m copies.

That put him comfortably ahead of the next biggest seller, the soundtrack for Disney's High School Musical 2.

Nielsen SoundScan data shows a 14% rise in overall music sales - though overall album sales fell by 9.5%.

Sales of digital tracks rose by 45%, with more than 840m purchased during 2007.

Decline

Reformed rockers the Eagles were 2007's biggest selling group with sales of 3.58m albums.

The Eagles returned with their Long Road Out of Eden album

Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie was named the year's best-selling digital artist, selling more than 7.5m units during the year.

Just over 500m albums were sold in the US last year, down from 2006's total of 588.2m.

The decision by some major artists to push back album releases may have contributed to the decline.

But digital album sales rose by 53%, with 50m units sold in 2007 compared to 32.6m in 2006.