Album sales up following 7-year slump: internet rescues reluctant music industry

Ever since we learned that nothing in that Alanis Morissette song was actually ironic we’ve been nervous about using that word – but we’re going to take a shot. Because news that digital sales are the reason the music industry can report its first increase in album sales since 2004 – well that’s ironic, considering how the music industry has been raging against the new format.

A new report from Nielsen SoundScan, released yesterday, shows that album sales increased in the first half of this year, for the first time in seven years. It’s only a 1% increase, mind, but it’s significant as the trend has been negative for so long.

In the first half of 2011, 155.5 million albums were sold in the US. If counting single track downloads, counting ten singles as an album, the increase is actually 3.6%, or 221.5 million albums.

“Digital album sales are up 19% through the first six months over 2010 and are on pace to set a new sales record at the end of the year,” said Nielsen. With 660.8 million digital units sold in the first half of 2011, this represents an 11% percent year-on-year increase.

Other / proper examples of irony may be left in the comments, thx.