The organisation reports that combined album sales were down 3.5% (including "unmatched" digital sales, in accordance with BPI rules) overall in 2009 to 128.9m. The small decrease was largely thanks to a "healthy stream of key releases" including albums from Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga, Michael Buble, Kings of Leon, Black Eyed Peas, JLS, Robbie Williams and Paolo Nutini.

Singles sales increased by 32.7%, with more than 152m singles sold, beating the 2008 record of 115.1m.

However, the BPI figures do ...