NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry's data information system that tracks unit point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product and Nielsen BDS, the music industry’s leading music performance monitoring service- which power many of the Billboard charts- have announced the 2011 calendar year sales and airplay monitoring data for the 52-week period January 3, 2011 through January 1, 2012.

OVERALL MUSIC SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) OVERALL ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) (ALBUMS, SINGLES, MUSIC VIDEO, DIGITAL TRACKS – IN MILLIONS) (INCLUDES ALL ALBUMS & TRACK EQUIVALENT ALBUMS – IN MILLIONS) UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. *1,611 1,507 6.9% 457.7 443.4 3.2% TOTAL ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) INTERNET ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) (INCLUDES CD, CS, LP, DIGITAL ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS) (PHYSICAL ALBUM PURCHASES VIA E-COMMERCE SITES, IN MILLIONS) UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. 330.6 326.2 1.3% 29.3 24.9 17.7% DIGITAL TRACK SALES DIGITAL ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/2012 - IN MILLIONS) (1/3/2011 – 1/1/2012 - IN MILLIONS) UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % CHG. UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % CHG. *1,271 1,172 8.5% *103.1 86.3 19.5% TOTAL CD ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) TOTAL LP ALBUM SALES (1/3/11 – 1/1/12) (CD ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS) (LP/VINYL ALBUMS - IN MILLIONS) UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. 223.5 236.9 - 5.7% *3.9 2.8 36.3% HOLIDAY SEASON ALBUM SALES (11/7/11 – 1/1/12) HOLIDAY SEASON TRACK SALES (11/7/11 – 1/1/12) (Physical & Digital ALBUM SALES DURING HOLIDAY SEASON: IN MILLIONS) (Digital Track SALES DURING HOLIDAY SEASON: IN MILLIONS) UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. UNITS SOLD 2011 2010 % Chg. 75.1 78.7 - 4.6% 216.0 214.6 0.7% TOTAL NEW ALBUM RELEASES ALBUM SALES PLATEAUS (Based on new albums released 1/3/11 - 1/1/12) (Based on all albums sold 1/3/11 – 1/1/12) # OF ALBUMS 2011 2010 # OF ALBUMS 2011 2010 76,875 75,159 1 million Or More 13 13 500,000 – 999,999 35 35

*Denotes a Nielsen SoundScan sales record

2011 GENRE ALBUM SALES REPORT CURRENT VS. CATALOG ALBUM SALES (Based on total album sales 1/3/11-1/1/12 – IN THOUSANDS) (1/3/11-1/1/12 - IN MILLIONS) Genre 2011 2010 % Chg. Overall Albums 2011 2010 % Chg. Alternative 55,032 53,727 2.4% Current 179.4 187.3 - 4.2% Christian/Gospel+ 23,734 24,226 -2.0% Catalog 151.2 138.9 8.9% Classical 9,566 8,957 6.8% Deep Catalog 119.4 106.1 12 .5% Country 42,923 43,718 -1.8% Jazz 11,077 8,780 26.2% Physical Albums: 2011 2010 % Chg. Latin 11,814 12,350 -4.3% Current 126.5 143.0 - 11.5% Metal 32,206 32,554 -1.1% Catalog 101.0 97.0 4.1% New Age 1,929 1,660 16.2% Deep Catalog 81.0 74.9 8.1% R&B 55,435 57,871 -4.2% Rap 28,251 27,328 3.4% Digital Albums: 2011 2010 % Chg. Rock 105,685 103,709 1.9% Current 52.9 44.3 19.4% Soundtrack 13,232 16,412 -19.4% Catalog 50.2 41.9 19.8% Electronic 10,049 8,735 15.0% Deep Catalog 38.4 31.2 23.1% (Note: Titles may appear in more than one genre.) +Sales figures tracked by Christian SoundScan

2011 GENRE DIGITAL ALBUM SALES REPORT DIGITAL TRACK SALES BY DECADE (Based on digital album sales 1/3/11-1/1/12 – IN THOUSANDS) (1/3/11-1/1/12 – IN THOUSANDS) Genre 2011 2010 % Chg. Decade 2011 2010 % Chg. % Tot Sales Alternative 24,674 20,932 19.9% 2010’s 541,981 251,000 116% 43% Christian/Gospel+ 4,781 3,971 20.4% 2000’s 535,170 742,700 - 28% 43% Classical 2,409 2,016 19.5% 1990’s 87,092 85,141 2% 7% Country 8,181 6,437 27.1% 1980’s 40,506 38,316 6% 3% Jazz 2,636 2,191 20.3% 1970’s 32,589 30,966 5% 3% Latin 1,128 917 23.0% 1960’s 18,236 16,933 8% 1% Metal 9,752 8,090 20.5% 1950’s 2,712 2,977 -9% 0.2% New Age 574 529 8.5% 1940’s 601 652 - 8% 0.04% R&B 14,922 11,731 27.2% Rap 9,882 6,969 41.8% CURRENT VS. CATALOG DIGITAL TRACK SALES Rock 38,593 33,186 16.3% (1/3/11-1/1/12 – IN MILLIONS) Soundtrack 5,543 5,678 -2.4% Sales 2011 2010 % Chg. Electronic 4,936 3,468 42.3% Current 552.4 523.0 6% Catalog 718.4 648.5 11%

DIGITAL TRACK SALES BY CORE GENRE (1/3/11-1/1/12 – IN THOUSANDS) Genre 2011 % Tot Sales Genre 2011 % Tot Sales Blues 2,423 0.2% Latin 20,613 1.6% Children 4,238 0.3% New Age 1,398 0.1% Christian/Gospel 32,248 2.5% Pop 305,606 24.0% Classical 6,692 0.5% R&B/Hip Hop 262,058 20.6% Comedy 6,650 0.5% Rock 291,655 22.9% Country 143,694 11.3% World 4,125 0.3% Dance/Electronic 39,095 3.1% Holiday/Seasonal 13,700 1.1% Jazz 9,231 0.7%

2011 YEAR-TO-DATE RECORD COMPANY MARKET SHARE (1/3/11 - 1/1/12) (Reflects the market share for the entire entity including sub-distributed companies for the 52 week year) TOTAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles) CURRENT ALBUMS CATALOG ALBUMS 2011 2010 2011 2010 2011 2010 UMG 29.85% 30.84% UMG 31.85% 34.61% UMG 27.43% 25.77% SME 29.29% 27.95% SME 29.56% 27.48% SME 28.97% 28.59% WMG 19.13% 20.01% WMG 17.39% 18.44% WMG 21.18% 22.12% EMI 9.62% 10.18% EMI 9.07% 9.62% EMI 10.34% 10.93% OTHERS 12.11% 11.02% OTHERS 12.14% 9.85% OTHERS 12.07% 12.60%

PHYSICAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles) DIGITAL ALBUMS (Catalog & Current Titles) DIGITAL TRACKS 2011 2010 2011 2010 2011 2010 UMG 30.53% 32.06% UMG 28.35% 27.47% UMG 32.97% 33.30% SME 31.08% 29.31% SME 25.36% 24.18% SME 26.21% 25.28% WMG 18.78% 19.07% WMG 19.91% 22.60% WMG 17.74% 19.58% EMI 9.44% 9.99% EMI 10.00% 10.71% EMI 8.26% 8.36% OTHERS 10.17% 9.57% OTHERS 16.37% 15.03% OTHERS 12.97% 12.51%

BILLBOARD’S TOP SELLING ALBUMS & ARTISTS, BASED ON NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN DATA

*for the 2011 Calendar Year

2011 TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS 2011 TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS (1/3/2011-1/1/2012) (Based on Album sales from 1/3/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 21 / Adele 5,824,000 1 Adele 6,744,000 2 Christmas / Michael Buble 2,452,000 2 Justin Bieber 3,393,000 3 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 2,101,000 3 Michael Buble 2,985,000 4 Tha Carter IV / Lil’ Wayne 1,917,000 4 Lady Gaga 2,828,000 5 My Kinda Party / Jason Aldean 1,576,000 5 Lil’ Wayne 2,651,000 6 Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons 1,420,000 6 Lady Antebellum 2,180,000 7 Take Care / Drake 1,247,000 7 Glee Cast 2,104,000 8 Under The Mistletoe/ Justin Bieber 1,245,000 8 Jason Aldean 1,884,000 9 Watch The Throne/ Jay Z & Kanye West 1,232,000 9 Taylor Swift 1,847,000 10. Own The Night/ Lady Antebellum 1,204,000 10. Drake 1,591,000

2011 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL SONGS 2011 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ARTISTS (Combines all versions of same Song: 1/3/2011-1/1/2012) (Based on digital track sales from 1/3/2011 – 1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 Rolling In the Deep / Adele 5,813,000 1 Katy Perry 15,187,000 2 Party Rock Anthem / LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & G 5,468,000 2 Adele 14,247,000 3 E.T. / Katy Perry 4,829,000 3 Rihanna 13,918,000 4 Moves Like Jagger / Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera 4,111,000 4 Glee Cast 13,580,000 5 Give Me Everything / Pitbull feat Ne-yo,Afrojack 3,875,000 5 Lady Gaga 12,768,000 6 Pumped Up Kicks / Foster the People 3,843,000 6 Lil Wayne 12,335,000 7 Someone Like You / Adele 3,750,000 7 LMFAO 10,507,000 8 F**k You (Forget You) / Cee Lo Green 3,724,000 8 Bruno Mars 10,443,000 9 Super Bass / Nicki Minaj 3,608,000 9 Eminem 9,264,000 10. Born This Way / Lady Gaga 3,476,000 10. Chris Brown 8,770,000

2011 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL TRACKS 2011 TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ALBUMS (1/3/2011 – 1/1/2012) (1/3/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 Rolling In The Deep / Adele 5,756,000 1 21 / Adele 1,801,000 2 Party Rock Anthem / LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & G 5,006,000 2 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 877,000 3 Moves Like Jagger / Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera 4,012,000 3 Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons 761,000 4 Give Me Everything / Pitbull feat Ne-yo,Afrojack 3,793,000 4 Watch The Throne/ Jay Z & Kanye West 608,000 5 Pumped Up Kicks / Foster the People 3,753,000 5 Tha Carter IV / Lil’ Wayne 603,000 6 Someone Like You / Adele 3,750,000 6 Mylo Xyloto / Coldplay 573,000 7 E.T. / Katy Perry 3,424,000 7 Take Care / Drake 467,000 8 Sexy And I Know It/ LMFAO 3,355,000 8 Christmas / Michael Buble 348,000 9 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 3,346,000 9 Teenage Dream / Katy Perry 299,000 10. Super Bass / Nicki Minaj 3,005,000 10. Torches / Foster The People 294,000

TOP TEN ALBUMS DURING 2011 HOLIDAY SEASON TOP TEN DIGITAL SONGS DURING HOLIDAY SEASON (Based on album sales from 11/7/2011-1/1/2012) (Based on digital song sales from 11/7/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Title/Artist Units Sold 1 Christmas / Michael Buble 2,223,000 1 Sexy And I Know It / LMFAO 1,873,000 2 21 / Adele 1,507,000 2 We Found Love / Rihanna feat Calvin Harris 1,703,000 3 Take Care / Drake 1,246,000 3 It Will Rain / Bruno Mars 1,465,000 4 Under The Mistletoe/ Justin Bieber 1,035,000 4 Good Feeling / Flo Rida 1,272,000 5 Here And Now / Nickelback 586,000 5 One That Got Away / Katy Perry 1,263,000 6 Now 40 / Various 550,000 6 Someone Like You / Adele 1,068,000 7 Talk That Talk / Rihanna 514,000 7 Ni**as In Paris/ Jay-Z & Kanye West 1,005,000 8 Concerto:Live Central Park / Andrea Bocelli 460,000 8 Party Rock Anthem / LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett 996,000 9 Own The Night / Lady Antebellum 455,000 9 Moves Like Jagger / Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera 993,000 10. Mylo Xyloto / Coldplay 454,000 10 Without You / David Guetta feat Usher 904,000

2011 TOP TEN SEASONAL ALBUMS 2011 TOP TEN INTERNET ALBUMS (1/3/2011-1/1/2012) (1/3/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Title/Artist Units Sold 1 Christmas / Michael Buble 2,452,000 1 21 / Adele 321,000 2 Under The Mistletoe/ Justin Bieber 1,245,000 2 Christmas / Michael Buble 168,600 3 Heavenly Christmas / Jackie Evancho 310,000 3 Duets II / Tony Bennett 97,200 4 Glee: The Music, The Christmas / Glee Cast 306,000 4 Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons 96,700 5 Very She & Him Christmas / She & Him 288,000 5 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 77,800 6 My Christmas / Andrea Bocelli 247,000 6 19 / Adele 72,800 7 The Gift / Susan Boyle 233,000 7 Dream With Me / Jackie Evancho 72,300 8 Christmas Symph. / Mannheim Steamroller 184,000 8 King Of Limbs/ Radiohead 71,300 9 Noel / Josh Groban 178,000 9 Il Volo / Il Volo 63,000 10. Charlie Brown Christmas / Vince Guaraldi 170,000 10. Mylo Xyloto / Coldplay 60,700

2011 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS 2011 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS (1/3/2011-1/1/2012) (Based on vinyl album sales from 1/3/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 Abbey Road / Beatles 41,000 1 Radiohead 64,000 2 Helplessness Blues / Fleet Foxes 29,700 2 Black Keys 58,200 3 Bon Iver / Bon Iver 27,200 3 Bon Iver 47,100 4 Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons 26,800 4 Beatles 43,300 5 King Of Limbs / Radiohead 20,800 5 Fleet Foxes 42,600 6 21 / Adele 16,500 6 Tom Waits 30,200 7 For Emma Forever Ago / Bon Iver 16,200 7 Wilco 30,100 8 Whole Love / Wilco 14,900 8 Jimi Hendrix 29,700 9 Brothers / Black Keys 14,200 9 Bob Dylan 27,400 10. El Camino / Black Keys 13,800 10. Nirvana 27,000

2011 TOP TEN PHYSICAL ALBUMS (Based on CD, Cassette and LP album sales from 1/3/2011-1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold 1 21 / Adele 4,023,000 2 Christmas / Michael Buble 2,104,000 3 My Kinda Party / Jason Aldean 1.326,000 4 Tha Carter IV / Lil’ Wayne 1.314,000 5 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 1,223,000 6 Under The Mistletoe/ Justin Bieber 1,094,000 7 Own The Night/ Lady Antebellum 966,000 8 4 / Beyonce 845,000 9 Take Care / Drake 780,000 10. Speak Now / Taylor Swift 774,000

BILLBOARD’S MOST PLAYED TITLES AND ARTISTS, BASED ON NIELSEN BDS DATA

*for the 2011 Calendar Year

Top 10 Most Played Songs Top 10 Artist Airplay Title/Artist Detections Artist Detections 1 Rolling In The Deep / Adele 658,000 1 Katy Perry 1,457,000 2 Give Me Everything / Pitbull feat Ne-yo,Afrojack 620,000 2 Bruno Mars 1,440,000 3 Party Rock Anthem / LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & G 571,000 3 Lady Gaga 1,261,000 4 E.T. / Katy Perry 526,000 4 P!nk 1,182,000 5 Firework / Katy Perry 509,000 5 Rihanna 1,127,000 6 F**kin’ Perfect / P!nk 501,000 6 Adele 1,118,000 7 Grenade / Bruno Mars 483,000 7 Taylor Swift 1,094,000 8 Moves Like Jagger / Maroon 5 feat Christina Aguilera 465,000 8 Black Eyed Peas 955,000 9 Just Can’t Get Enough / Black Eyed Peas 457,000 9 Lady Antebellum 916,000 10. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) / Katy Perry 450,000 10. Britney Spears 900,000

Top 10 Holiday Songs Airplay Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Artists - Streams Title/Artist Detections Artist Streams 1 Rockin’ Around The Christmas/Brenda Lee 40,000 1 Lady Gaga 135,606,000 2 A Holly Jolly Christmas / Burl Ives 38,900 2 Rihanna 131,351,000 3 Jingle Bell Rock / Bobby Helms 38,000 3 Nicki Minaj 126,244,000 4 Feliz Navidad / Jose Feliciano 36,800 4 Adele 123,642,000 5 The Christmas Song / Nat King Cole 36,300 5 Taylor Swift 123,585,000 6 All I Want For Christmas Is…/Mariah Carey 34,000 6 Eminem 114,023,000 7 It’s The Most Wonderful…/Andy Williams 33,500 7 Beyonce 104,002,000 8 Happy X-Mas(War Is Over)/ John Lennon 31,500 8 Britney Spears 82,738,000 9 Do They Know It’s Christmas / Band Aid 30,200 9 Katy Perry 78,789,000 10. White Christmas / Bing Crosby 28,500 10. LMFAO 71,371,000

Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Streamed Songs Nielsen BDS: Top 10 Music Video Streams Title/Artist Streams Title/Artist Streams 1 Super Bass / Nicki Minaj 84,892,000 1 Super Bass / Nicki Minaj 70,956,000 2 Party Rock Anthem / LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & G 71,371,000 2 Party Rock Anthem/ LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & 56,428,000 3 Rolling In The Deep / Adele 53,173,000 3 Sexy And I Know It/ LMFAO 45,800,000 4 Sexy And I Know It/ LMFAO 50,196,000 4 Someone Like You / Adele 31,196,000 5 Someone Like You / Adele 40,853,000 5 Rolling In The Deep / Adele 30,064,000 6 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 36,580,000 6 Love You Like… /Selena Gomez & The Scene 26,124,000 7 Look At Me Now/ Chris Brown feat Lil Wayne & Busta 33,909,000 7 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 25,130,000 8 Give Me Everything / Pitbull feat Ne-yo,Afrojack 32,616,000 8 Look At Me Now/ Chris Brown feat Lil Wayne & 24,218,000 9 On The Floor/ Jennifer Lopez feat Pitbull 31,909,000 9 We Found Love / Rihanna feat Calvin Harris 22,819,000 10. Love You Like… /Selena Gomez & The Scene 30,928,000 10. On The Floor/ Jennifer Lopez feat Pitbull 21,960,000

BILLBOARD’S TOP TITLES & ARTISTS OF THE NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN ERA

TOP TEN SELLING ARTISTS TOP TEN SELLING ALBUMS (Based on album sales from 1991-1/1/2012) (1991 – 1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 Garth Brooks 68,561,000 1 Metallica / Metallica 15,735,000 2 Beatles 63,299,000 2 Come On Over / Shania Twain 15,513,000 3 Mariah Carey 53,612,000 3 Jagged Little Pill / Alanis Morissette 14,714,000 4 Metallica 53,170,000 4 Millennium / Backstreet Boys 12,168,000 5 Celine Dion 51,492,000 5 Beatles 1 / Beatles 11,985,000 6 George Strait 43,310,000 6 Soundtrack / Bodyguard 11,829,000 7 Eminem 41,166,000 7 Supernatural / Santana 11,772,000 8 Tim McGraw 40,169,000 8 Human Clay / Creed 11,574,000 9 Alan Jackson 38,860,000 9 No Strings Attached / N Sync 11,122,000 10. Pink Floyd 37,228,000 10. Falling Into You / Celine Dion 10,790,000

TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL SONGS TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ALBUMS (7/4/2004-1/1/2012) (7/4/2004 – 1/1/2012) Title/Artist Units Sold Artist Units Sold 1 I Gotta Feeling / Black Eyed Peas 7,688,000 1 21 / Adele 1,801,000 2 Poker Face / Lady Gaga 6,529,000 2 Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons 1,103,000 3 Just Dance / Lady Gaga feat. Colby O’Donis 6,458,000 3 Recovery / Eminem 1,081,000 4 Boom Boom Pow / Black Eyed Peas 6,267,000 4 Fame / Lady Gaga 1,010,000 5 Low/ Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain 6,152,000 5 Born This Way / Lady Gaga 877,000 6 Tik Tok / Ke$ha 6,149,000 6 Viva La Vida / Coldplay 841,000 7 Rolling In The Deep / Adele 5,921,000 7 Fearless / Taylor Swift 785,000 8 I’m Yours / Jason Mraz 5,919,000 8 Only By The Night/ Kings Of Leon 710,000 9 Hey, Soul Sister / Train 5,741,000 9 Soundtrack / Twilight 682,000 10. Dynamite / Taio Cruz 5,719,000 10. Speak Now / Taylor Swift 681,000

TOP TEN SELLING DIGITAL ARTISTS (Based on digital track sales from 7/4/2004-1/1/2012) Artist Units Sold 1 Rihanna 47,571,000 2 Black Eyed Peas 42,405,000 3 Eminem 42,290,000 4 Lady Gaga 42,078,000 5 Taylor Swift 41,821,000 6 Katy Perry 37,620,000 7 Lil’ Wayne 36,788,000 8 Beyonce 30,439,000 9 Kanye West 30,242,000 10. Britney Spears 28,665,000

2011 Year-End Factoids

For the first time, total music purchases reached the 1.6 Billion mark for the year .

mark for the year Overall Album sales ( including Albums and Track Equivalent Album sales ) were up 3.2% compared to 2010.

) were up 3.2% compared to 2010. Total Album sales were up for the first time since 2004 (1.3%) with sales totaling 330.6 million, compared to 326.2 million in 2010.

There were 228 million physical album sales in 2011, a decline of 5% over 2010. This is significantly less than the 19.5% decline in 2010.

During 2011 there were 76,875 new albums released that sold at least one copy, that’s up slightly from 2010 when there were just over 75,000 new albums released. The nearly 77,000 new album releases accounted for 113.2 million sales - or 34% of ALL album sales for the entire year. The top 1,500 best selling new album releases accounted for over 100 million (nearly 90%) of the 113 million sales generated by new releases.

Similar to a year ago, there were 11 albums that sold 1 million or more copies and 35 albums that sold 500,000 – 999,999 copies.

While there were a number of album genres that had saw growth over the previous year, 3 smaller genres experienced double digital growth in 2011: Jazz, New Age and Electronic grew by 26%, 16% and 15%, respectively.

For the fourth consecutive year, more vinyl albums were purchased than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan. In 2011, vinyl album sales reached 3.9 million in sales, shattering the previous record of 2.8 million LP album sales in 2010. Note that 67% of all vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during 2011. Vinyl album sales in 2011 were up 36% compared to 2010 and accounted for 1.2% of all album sales. Nearly three out of every four vinyl albums purchased in 2011 were a Rock album.

in the history of Nielsen SoundScan.

Digital Factoids:

For the first time, digital music sales are larger than physical sales; accounting for 50.3% of all music purchases in 2011.

Digital track sales set a new record with 1.27 billion sales in 2011; an increase of 100 million sales (8.4%) over 2010.

Digital album sales exceeded 100 million for the first time with a new all-time high of 103.1 million sales (up from 86.3 million in 2010); an increase of nearly 20%. Digital album sales accounted for nearly 1 out of every 3 album purchases (31%) in 2011; compared to 26% in 2010, 20% in 2009, 15% in 2008, 10% in 2007 and 5.5% in 2006. Nearly all digital album genres had a positive year in 2011; except for Soundtracks which were down just over 2% compared to 2010. While total digital album growth was 20% in 2011, there were a number of digital album genres that experienced even higher digital growth. Rap and Electronic digital album sales -> up 42% Country and R&B digital album sales -> up 27% Latin digital album sales -> up 23% For the last week of 2011 (week ending 1/1/2012), digital album sales set a new high with sales of 3.5 million.

Digital track sales for Pop, Rock, R&B/Hip Hop and Country genres all had double digital growth in 2011; 24%, 23%, 20% and 11% respectively.

For the first time, a digital song had more than five million downloads in a calendar year; Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” sold 5.8 million downloads and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” sold 5.5 million.

For the first time, more than 100 Digital Songs (112) exceeded the 1 million sales mark for the year.

In 2011 there were 38 different digital songs with sales that exceeded two million (compared to 37 in 2010, 31 in 2009, 19 in 2008 and nine in 2007).

In 2011, eight different artists broke the 10 million digital track sales mark.

Best Seller Album Factoids:

Adele’s 21 finishes the year as the biggest selling album with just more than 5.8 million sales. This is the first time since 2004 that an album sold more than 5 million copies in a year. Usher’s album Confessions sold 8 million copies in 2004. Adele held top honors in many sales categories this year and became the first artist to claim the top spot for Best Selling Artist, Album and Digital Song in the same year. Below is a listing of Adele’s top honors for 2011: Best Selling Artist based on Album sales – 6.7 million Best Selling Album ( 21 ) – 5.8 million Best Selling Physical Album ( 21 ) – 4.0 million Best Selling Digital Album ( 21 ) – 1.8 million Best Selling Digital Album of All Time ( 21 ) – 1.8 million Best Selling Internet Album ( 21 ) – 321,000 Best Selling Digital Song (“Rolling In The Deep”) – 5.8 million Best Selling Digital Track (“Rolling In The Deep”) – 5.7 million Most Played Song on the Radio (“Rolling In The Deep”) – 658,000 detections

finishes the year as the biggest selling album with just more than 5.8 million sales. This is the first time since 2004 that an album sold more than 5 million copies in a year. Usher’s album sold 8 million copies in 2004.

For the second straight year, Lady Antebellum finishes the year as the biggest selling group of 2011 with more than 2.1 million album sales.

Metallica’s self titled album remains on top as the best selling album in the Nielsen SoundScan era with more than 15.7 million album sales; more than 200,000 ahead of Shania Twain’s Come On Over .

. Garth Brooks continues to be comfortably the best selling artist in the Nielsen SoundScan era with more than 68.5 million album sales; 5 million sales ahead of the Beatles.

Rihanna takes over the top spot as the biggest selling digital artist of all time with digital track sales totaling more than 47.5 million.

The Columbia label group ends the year with the largest album market share among all label groups with a 9.34 share.

Most Played and Streamed Factoids:

Katy Perry ends the year as the most played artist over the airways in 2011 with more than 1.4 million spins; edging out Bruno Mars by 17,000 spins.

Seven out of the top 10 played artists in 2011 all had more than 1 million detections for the year.

There were more than 20.5 Billion streams captured by Nielsen BDS during 2011 from their panel of streaming services.

streams captured by Nielsen BDS during 2011 from their panel of streaming services. Lady Gaga claimed the top spot as the most streamed artist in 2011 with more than 135 million streams.

Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” was the most streamed song and music video in 2011 with 84.9 million audio streams and 71 million video streams.

Holiday Season Factoids: (11/7 – 1/1/12).

Overall album sales during the 2011 holiday season were down 4.6% with sales of 75 million sales.

Overall track sales during the 2011 holiday season were up just about 1% with sales totaling 216 million.

Similar to the two previous years, album sales during the “holiday season” accounted for 23% of all album sales for the year.

Michael Buble’s Christmas album compiled more than 2.4 million sales during the last 10 weeks of the year and wound up being the 2 nd biggest selling album in 2011 behind Adele’s 21 .

album compiled more than 2.4 million sales during the last 10 weeks of the year and wound up being the 2 biggest selling album in 2011 behind Adele’s . Michael Buble’s Christmas album was also the biggest selling album during the 2011 holiday season (2.2 million sales) as well as the biggest holiday album since Josh Groban’s Noel (2007) that sold 3.7 million copies.

Strata Factoids: