No Rock And Roll Fun

SINGLES NOW LAST YEAR - OFFICIAL: It was inevitable, but it still feels like a moment: last week legitimate, sold, approved by BPI downloads outstripped sales of CD singles: 312,290 against 282,399.

In other sales news, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4150747.stm US CD albums, with (along with vinyl and cassettes) managed a staggering 666 Million units in 2004 - a 2.3% rise and, some might say, a fitting figure for the RIAA to be reporting. Curiously, this rise was managed at the same time as 140 million official downloads were sold. And yet hadn't we been told that if people could get hold of music on computers, it would harm physical sales? Once again, the RIAA is forced to release figures that shows - providing you're not just releasing turgid rubbish - it's quite possible for people to buy shedloads of real records alongside downloading them. Now will they stop the tired claim that filesharing is killing their industry? Almost certainly not, but we can always hope, eh?