> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.hypebot.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# SoundScan Mid-Year Report Shows Album Sales Down 3.2%, Digital Sales Up 13.8%
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/soundscan-mid-year-report-shows-cd-album-sales-down-32-digital-sales-up-138/
- Published: 2012-07-05T15:18:00.000Z
- Updated: 2012-07-05T15:18:00.000Z
- Description: According to Nielsen SoundScan’s mid-year report, album sales (CD + digital) have dropped 3.2% during the first six months of 2012 to 150.5 million units from 155.5 million a year. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/07/soundscan-mid-year-report-shows-cd-album-sales-down-32-digita
- Author: admin
- Tags: Vinyl, Cassettes & Retail, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:49

[![Cd](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201761626d3dc970c-200wi "Cd")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201761626d3dc970c-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

According to Nielsen SoundScan’s mid-year report, **album sales (CD + digital) have dropped 3.2%** during the first six months of 2012 to 150.5 million units from 155.5 million a year ago. **CD sales declined 15.1%** in the second quarter of 2012 to 42.6 million units, compared to 51.4 million a year ago. Meanwhile, **digital album sales have seen a jump of 13.8%** to 57.2 million units in the first six months of 2012, from 50.3 million a year ago.

  
The growth of individual track download sales has slowed during the first six months of 2012 compared to 2011, growing only 5.6% to 698 million. This is a considerable drop from the 10.6% increase during the first half of 2011, which saw scans of 660.8 million from 597.4 million units during the first six months of 2010.

Without question, a large contribution of physical scans has come from Adele's "21," which has seen 9.5 million U.S. scans since its release in January of 2011 and coming off a second resurgence after a huge night at the Grammy Awards back in February. In fact, the #1 selling album of 2012 so far has been Adele's "21" with 3.67 million units.

As far as digital singles go, both Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" and fun.'s "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monae) surpassed the 5 million mark with scans of 5.5 million and 5.1 milion units respectively.

More details available [here](http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/retail/soundscan-mid-year-report-unit-sales-up-1007502152.story?ref=hypebot.com) (via Billboard.biz).

—

***Hisham Dahud*** *is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for [Fame House](http://famehouse.net/?ref=hypebot.com)[, LLC](http://www.famehouse.net/?ref=hypebot.com) and an [independent musician](https://soundcloud.com/hishamdahud?ref=hypebot.com). Follow him on Twitter: [@HishamDahud](http://twitter.com/hishamdahud?ref=hypebot.com)*