Album Sales Hit Nine-Year Low in 2005, Vivendi Takes Share From Sony (SNE, WMG, V)

From Reuters:

Tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan, which measures point-of-sale purchases across the United States, said Wednesday that total album sales--including current and catalog titles--fell 7.2 percent from 2004 to 618.9 million units, the lowest since 1996, when they were 616.6 million.

After enjoying an "up" year in 2004, prompting predictions that the worst was over, sales flagged during 2005, hurt by competition from illegal downloads, rival forms of entertainment such as video games, and a lack of breakout musical acts.

...overall music sales, which include albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks, jumped 22.7 percent to just over a billion units in 2005. The rise was fueled by a 194 percent increase in digital downloads.

2005 Album Market Share Data:

• Universal Music Group [owned by Vivendi (V)]: 31.7%, up from 29.6% 2004.
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a JV between Sony (SNE) and Bertelsmann: 25.61%, down from 28.4%
• Warner Music Group (WMG): 15% of the market, up slightly from 14.7%
• EMI Group: 9.5%, down from 9.9%.