U.S. album sales died another 9.5 percent in 2007 according to figures released recently. A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes(do people still have cassette players?), LPs (wow!) and other formats (8 track anyone?) were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006’s unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan. About 850 million digital tracks sold in 2007 from places such as iTunes, Zune.Net, Amazon.com and Emusic, compared to 588 million in 2006, and digital album sales accounting for 10 percent of total album purchases. Last year, iTunes became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S - behind Wal*Mart and Best Buy.

Overall music purchases, including albums, singles, digital tracks and music videos, rose to 1.35 billion units, up 14 percent from 2006. The decline in music sales isn’t due solely to LemonWire and BitTorrent though, with more music becoming available on Xbox 360 in games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, along with an increase in video game prices and DVDs, consumers are having a hard time deciding what to buy with their dollars, pounds and euros.

Scarily, Josh Groban had the best-selling album with “Noel.” The album, a collection of Christmas songs, sold around 3.7 million copies. High School Musical soundtrack came in second with around 2.9 million units sold and The Eagles’ comeback album, “Long Road Out of Eden,” finished third selling around 2.6 million copies. No Eminem, Madonna, Radiohead, Coldplay or Amy Winehouse to keep up the real music sales then….

Universal Music Group came out top with 31.9%, Sony BMG, rolled in second with with 24.97 percent, Warner Music remained third-largest, with a 20.2 percent share. EMI ranked fourth with a 9.3 percent share. A report released in November by Jupiter Research forecast digital music sales will continue to grow to $2.8 billion, comprising 34 percent of U.S. consumer spending on music in 2012. The recording industry continued to benefit from mobile music, with mobile phone owners buying 220 million ringtones - something the record execs keep quiet about when talking about revenue numbers - as they know they’re ripping off the consumers.

EMusic subscribers downloaded nearly 500,000 tracks and audio books on Christmas Day alone. The company’s paid subscriber base exceeded 400,000 at the close of the year.