Album Sales Hit All Time Low

     It's no surprise that album sales continue to plummet, but last week, they hit an all time low.  Billboard reports, "For the week ending May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4,984,000 albums, according to Nielsen Soundscan. This figure, which includes new and catalog releases, represents the fewest number of albums sold in one week since Soundscan began compiling this data in 1994."

     Prior to 1994,  records of how much music was sold was less accurate, but some industry officials estimate that last week marked the worst week for sales since the early 1970's.  To put the numbers in perspective, compare last week's nearly 5 million albums sold with the record high - 45.4 million albums sold in December, 2000.

     As usual, the response is to fight to un-winnable war against online music piracy rather than find a new business model that will work in the Internet age.

     "All the more reason why everyone in the industry should be focused on getting the U.S. Congress to introduce legislation that makes the Internet service providers our allies in fighting piracy," said Universal Music Group Distribution president Jim Urie.  "Piracy is getting worse and worse and the government needs to focus on that."