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And this year’s No 1 is…………

The inexorable path to digital music consumption continues unabated with physical sales down and digital up dramatically again this last year according to figures relating to US music sales for 2008.

The big question though is whether digital music sales are increasing enough to make up for the physical downturn? The answer seems to be a resounding no. Nielsen SoundScan has revealed that album sales across all formats in the USA for 2008 were down 14% from 500.5 million units to 428.4 million. CD album sales were down 20% in the year to 352 million units, while digital album sales grew 32% (to 62.8 million units).

Encouragingly, digital track sales grew 27%, topping one billion for the first time - including a massive 47.7 million tracks in the last week of December alone. Whilst the percentage sales rise though digital appears to be closing in on the fall in physical sales it’s worth remembering that digital sales are starting from an historically miniscule level. And even digital growth slowed compared to 2007, when the album and track increases were 53% and 45% respectively. As for ring tone sales, they’re in freefall, plummeting 33% in 2008 to 43.8 million units.

The biggest selling artist Stateside for 2008 was Lil’ Wayne with "Tha Carter III" shifting 2.8 million copies, the first time the best selling album sold less than 3 million since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

AC/DC, rocked their way to 3.4 million albums sales whilst Taylor Swift’s two albums selling 4 million copies made her the top solo artist.

Digitally - Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" led with 3.4 million paid downloads. Rihanna was the top digital track seller with 9.9 million units.

Labelwise Universal Music Group lead with 31.52% - in second place was Sony BMG with 25.3%; Warner Music Group improved to 21.38%; while EMI's dropped to 8.97%. Independents collectively dropped to 12.83%.