Album sales continued their steady decline in the first six months of 2008, according to new data from Nielsen SoundScan. Sales declined by 11 percent in the first half of the year, though this slide wasn't as steep as the drop in the first half of last year. The first half of 2007 saw a 15.1 percent decline. Variety reports that total album sales, physical and digital, have reached 204.6 million units so far this year.

CD sales have fallen over 16 percent compared to 2007 figures, hurt more so by the closure of more national music store chains and shrinking shelf space at 'big box' retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Digital sales continue to increase, up 34 percent to 31.6 million units, making up 15.5 percent of all album sales so far this year.

The four major labels have essentially kept the same percentage piece of the pie that they had in the first half of 2007. Universal Music Group holds 31.2 percent of the market, followed by Sony BMG (25 percent), Warner Music Group (20.9 percent) and EMI with 9.1 percent. Independent labels made up 13.9 percent.

The three best-selling records released in 2008 are all UMG acts: Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III (1.5 million copies sold after just three weeks), Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static (1.2 million) and E=MC2 from Mariah Carey (1.1 million). Six albums had crossed a million sold at this point in 2007, though Alicia Keys and Coldplay are both set to see their new albums go Platinum this month. The best selling single released in 2008 is Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love," with 2.6 million digital sales. Nielsen SoundScan also notes that vinyl sales are notably up, with 803,000 records sold in the first half of the year, compared to 454,000 in the first half of '07.