Salon.com > record industry http://www.salon.com Fri, 24 May 2013 21:55:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 2012′s best-selling album is so two years ago http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/2012s_best_selling_album_is_so_two_years_ago/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/2012s_best_selling_album_is_so_two_years_ago/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:19:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13161732 Despite the album having gone on sale in February 2011, Adele's "21" was the best-selling LP of 2012 according to the year-end Nielsen SoundScan figures. This gives Adele the crown two years in a row, and caps off a year in which Adele won the Album of the Year Grammy, recorded the theme to the Bond film "Skyfall," and began a break from recording occasioned by the birth of her son.

It's that last part that may have the record industry a bit concerned. Adele's success (her album sold over 1 million more than Taylor Swift's "Red" in 2012, though it had several more months on shelves) is among the only inspiring stories that music labels can tell themselves about the album, a form that may have outlived its usefulness in a post-CD world. After an uptick in 2011, album sales were down in 2012 as they had been for years before; CD sales continue to flat-line, though they make up the majority of album purchases.

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