CD sales bounce back from the dead

Don’t write off the compact disc just yet.

Just when it seemed the spectacular rise of illegal and legal music downloads had all but killed off the humble CD, new figures from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) show CD sales for the six weeks from the end of October were 22% higher than the same time last year.

ARIA chief Ed St John said he hadn’t seen such high figures around the Christmas period in more than four or five years. Number one albums typically sell around 8000 units a week, but that has exploded to 20,000 to 30,000 in recent months.

“We always get a lift at Christmas, but this is out of the box and much earlier than normal,” St John told AAP.

“Maybe it’s because music is a good price or maybe people particularly need entertaining at the moment,” St John said.