US album sales recovery in sight

R&B singer Usher has sold 4.5m copies of his album Confessions

Album sales in the US are on track to end a three-year slump after a 7% rise in the first six months of this year, according to industry figures.

Blockbuster albums by Usher, Norah Jones, country singer Kenny Chesney and hip-hop duo Outkast helped boost sales.

A total 305.7m albums sold from January to June this year, the music tracking service Nielsen SoundScan said.

The results may mean an end to three years of declining sales blamed by the industry on piracy and a slow economy.

Digital explosion

The holiday season is expected to bring even higher sales, helping 2004 to beat the overall tally for the previous year.

Growth in digital downloads has also shot up, Nielsen SoundScan said, with about 2.4m taking place each week.

Almost 54m tracks were bought in the first six months of this year, putting internet song sales on track to reach the 100m mark by the end of the year.

It compares to only 19.2m paid downloads in the second half of last year, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital sales.

The Recording Industry Association of America announced on Friday that downloads would be eligible for Gold and Platinum awards based on sales.

The digital download program will authenticate sales of licensed content from legitimate online music services.

Certified sales of 100,000 singles will earn a Gold award, with double that amount warranting a Platinum award.

The explosion in online song sales has been led by OutKast, who had more than 320,000 downloads of their single Hey Ya.

Britney Spears' Toxic, No Doubt's It's my Life and This Love by Maroon 5 have also proved popular download choices.