The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) claimed the digital album ‘came of age’ last year. According to its statistics, 21m digital albums were sold in 2010, representing 17.5% of all album sales and a growth of 30.6% on 2009’s figures. However, this failed to halt the decline of combined sales of digital and physical albums, which they say fell by 7%. This decline is largely the result of increasing numbers of illegal downloads, which reached record levels and amounted to three-quarters of all downloads last year, according to a study carried out on behalf of the BPI.

One way to discourage music piracy is to use creative marketing strategies to heighten the experience and the enjoyment of acquiring music legally. The Kaiser Chiefs, whose new album The Future Is Medieval was released digitally earlier this month, have done just that.

We’re very pleased to announce that Musicmetric data and charts are now being used by the BPI (The British Recorded Music Industry trade association) as part of the BPI monthly market reports.

The reports show in depth analysis on the state of the music industry in the UK, and are sent out to all members of the BPI.

The latest report was published today, and we look forward to supplying more data and insight as a regular feature with the BPI in the future.

BPI Market Report - Musicmetric page