Music Sales | featured news

A report published by the European Commission Joint Research Committee claims that music web piracy does not harm legitimate sales. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies examined the online habits of 16,000 Europeans.

Adele's is named as the world's biggest seller for a second year as global sales figures show the first increase in music revenues for 14 years.

The music industry, the first media business to be consumed by the digital revolution, said Tuesday that its global sales had risen last year for the first time since 1999, raising hopes that a long-sought recovery might have finally begun.

Federal investigators are asking questions about Apple's business practices involving digital music and whether Apple used its market dominance to suppress competition from its iTunes rivals, sources say.

Since edging out WalMart in 2008 to become the top music retailer, Apple has increased its lead with iTunes and is now outselling both Walmart and second place BestBuy combined, while handling more than half of all digital music sales in the US.

Nearly 40 years after breaking up, The Beatles are still breaking records for album sales.Consumers in North America, Japan and the U.K. bought more than 2.25 million copies of the Beatles' re-mastered albums in the first five days after their Sept. 9 release.