It's a case of contrasting fortunes for the singles and albums markets this week, with album sales sliding 8% to 2,253,429 while singles enjoy a 9% boost to 908,915, writes Alan Jones.

Physical singles improved by 7% to 380,258, while downloads - boosted by the new Musicnet (HMV and Virgin) services - climbed by 10% to 528,659.

Overall singles sales were at their highest level for 14 weeks but sales at the bottom end of the chart were more ...