Mariah Carey's “Mimi” tops album sales in Christmas week

Mariah Carey's “Mimi” tops album sales in Christmas week

LOS ANGELES - Album sales in the United States were down by 7 percent in the current year, but the booming downloads market chipped in with substantial revenues to cover up the lack of album sales, according to a latest set of figures released by Nielsen SoundScan.

Total album sales through the year till December 25 were clocked at 602.2 million as compared to 650.8 million at the same time last year. But downloaded tracks jumped to 332.7 million in 2005 when compared to 134.2 million last year. This is a phenomenal rise of 148 percent.

This segment showed no sign of slowing down thanks to the popularity of Apple's iPod music player. Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" was the best-selling album of the year with 4.87 million in sales. The album has also been nominated for the Grammy's.

Rapper 50 Cent's "The Massacre" which was initially leading came in at second spot with 4.8 million copies sold. Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway," with 3.3 million in sales came in third, Nielsen SoundScan confirmed. If Mariah Carey's "Mimi" continues to top then she will be the first female artiste since Alanis Morissette in 1996 to end the year on a high. Morissette had topped with "Jagged Little Pill."

Holiday season shopping accounted for 9.6 million downloads the biggest in a single week as people relaxed with their favorite songs. Last year, 5 million tracks were sold in the Christmas week. The sales of DVDs and music videos dropped by 23 percent this year, accounting for a rather disappointing year as far as that segment was concerned.