TEN million music tracks have been downloaded this year, nearly double the level for the whole of 2004, the music industry announced yesterday.

A combination of court action against illegal file-sharers and a surprise revival in sales of 7in vinyl records has also produced a 52.4 per cent increase in the previously ailing singles market.

The British Phonographic Industry now believes that more downloads are being legitimately bought than are exchanged illegally over the internet. But while British artists are also making headway in the American charts, CD album sales in the UK declined by 1.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

The fall was caused by a 14.2 per cent fall in the compilations market, but the arrival of Coldplay’s million-selling record X&Y and the emergence of James Blunt, the former Household Cavalry Guardsman who served in Bosnia, is expected to reverse the decline.

Paid-for downloads have rocketed from virtually zero in 2003 to ten million in the first half of this year, with Apple’s iTunes store still the predominant retailer. Coldplay and Gorillaz are among the leading bands who have placed new tracks on iTunes weeks before their physical release.

But nostalgics can take pleasure in the revival of the 7in single, with record companies returning to vinyl as a collector’s item snapped up by rock fans.

Sales of 7in vinyl singles approached 1.4 million units, a 64 per cent improvement year-on-year and the best 12 months for the format since 1998. The bestselling 7in single in the year to March was a limited edition reissue of Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast. Elsewhere the format is dominated by a new generation of UK rock acts including the Libertines, Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.

Artists who performed at the Live 8 concerts received a sales boost, although retailers said that the effect vanished after last Thursday’s terrorist attacks.

Keane re-entered the charts at No 5 with their album Hopes and Fears. Razorlight’s Up All Night climbed 19 places to No 9, Mind Body and Soul by Joss Stone was up 23 places to No 16, and Hot Fuss by the Killers rose 11 places to No 11. In Time, the best of REM, shot up 15 places to No 18. Pink Floyd’s compilation Echoes was a new top 40 entry at No 19, while the Scissor Sisters album re- entered at No 25.

James Blunt has finally toppled Coldplay, reaching the No 1 album slot after 14 weeks on the chart.

The ex-Captain’s album Back To Bedlam has sold 500,000 copies.

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