UK music industry enjoys 'boom'

[KiwiCoromandel]

As the Brit Awards honour the best UK artists, fans have more ways than ever to access music and the industry is riding high.

Business is "booming", the UK music industry says, as talented new artists are breaking through and the public are lapping them up.

The Arctic Monkeys and James Blunt are leading a new crop of hugely popular UK acts, selling CDs at record-breaking rates.

Excluding compilations, CD sales are higher than ever and albums by British artists have hit a seven-year sales peak, the industry says.

Some 85% of people buy at least one album per month, according to a recent survey of 1,000 internet users by research firm XTN Data.

And legal song downloads, on which record companies and shops alike are staking their futures, more than quadrupled last year.

more.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4712270.stm

[method77]

maybe this will make them shut up about p2p