• by Wayne Friedman , May 12, 2011

Music sales in the U.S. have inched up in 2011.

The Nielsen Company says digital album and individual track sales contributed to a small 1.6% rise so far this year. Last year, digital album sales rose 16.8%, with individual track purchases up 9.6%. In 2010, there were 1.17 billion digital tracks sold. Overall, music sales in 2010 totaled 1.5 billion, a 2.4% decline from 2009.

Physical sales in music declined year-over-year. But vinyl record sales -- now just 1.2% of physical sales -- continue to grow, and are now estimated to reach 3.5 million units this year, a 25% gain over the year before. Ninety-three of the 100 best-selling vinyl albums in 2011 fall within the rock or alternative genres.

Nielsen notes that there was a big record store promotion -- on April 16, Record Store Day, when independent record stores witnessed 39% higher sales from the prior week -- an increase of 180,000 units and a 12.7% gain compared to 2010.

Rock continues to be most popular genre of music, with 32% album share, while pop music represents 40% of all current digital tracks sold.

Catalog album sales are now up 5.4% in 2011, spurred in part by the big digital distribution deal that makes The Beatles albums available for the first time.

"Strong releases and aggressive promotions by the labels and retailers are among the many contributing factors to the strength we're seeing in the music industry," stated Dave Bakula, senior vice president, analytics, entertainment for The Nielsen Company. "Overall, the data reflects a continuing strong demand by music consumers."