AC/DC Outsold Everyone Else In 2008

01/09/09 6:26pm

AC/DC's Black Ice edged out Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends as Canada's best selling album of 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan tabulations.

The Australian rockers' triumphant return record sold 341,000 copies, 7,000 more than Chris Martin and company's latest LP. AC/DC and Coldplay also ranked 1-2 in total album sales, with the former coming out on top by a 557,000 to 418,000 margin.

AC/DC fans don't appear to be big computer users, however, as Black Ice didn't rank among the 10 most downloaded albums. Viva La Vida led the way, being downloaded 46,700 times.

The brave new music world can be divided somewhat into album artists and singles artists, and the discrepancy is obvious on the year-end song downloads chart. Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" was downloaded 174,000 times, beating out Flo Rida's second-place "Low," which sold 161,000 downloads. Neither artist could be found among the top 10 selling albums.

Overall music sales — including albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks — rose 11.5 per cent to 78.5 million from a year earlier. But overall album sales dropped by 8.5 per cent to 40.6 million, as more people elected to pick and choose their favourite tracks instead of taking chances on entire records.

But digital album sales shot up by 69 per cent to 3.36 million. That growth rate is more than double that of the U.S., where sales rose by 32 per cent to 65.8 million.

2008 Top 10 Selling Albums:
AC/DC — Black Ice (341,000)
Coldplay — Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (334,000)
Metallica — Death Magnetic (265,000)
Nickelback — Dark Horse (216,000)
Jack Johnson — Sleep Through Static (193,000)
Mamma Mia! soundtrack (169,000)
Madonna — Hard Candy (169,000)
Il Divo — Promise (162,000)
Britney Spears — Circus (143,000)
Kid Rock — Rock N Roll Jesus (143,000)

2008 Top 10 Selling Artists:
AC/DC (557,000)
Coldplay (418,000)
Metallica (404,000)
Nickelback (279,000)
Jack Johnson (254,000)
Celine Dion (234,000)
Taylor Swift (233,000)
Guns N' Roses (221,000)
Madonna (215,000)
Il Divo (214,000)

2008 Top 10 Download Songs:
Lady Gaga — "Just Dance" (174,000)
Flo Rida featuring T-Pain — "Low" (161,000)
Katy Perry — "I Kissed A Girl" (159,000)
Rihanna — "Disturbia" (148,000)
Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake — "4 Minutes" (143,000)
Katy Perry — "Hot N Cold" (140,000)
Pink — "So What" (136,000)
Leona Lewis — "Bleeding Love" (132,000)
Coldplay — "Viva La Vida" (122,000)
The Pussycat Dolls — "When I Grow Up" (120,000)

2008 Top 10 Download Albums:
Coldplay — Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (46,700)
Jack Johnson — Sleep Through The Static (18,600)
Juno soundtrack (17,700)
Madonna — Hard Candy (14,900)
Metallica — Death Magnetic (12,600)
Kings Of Leon — Only By The Night (11,200)
Radiohead — In Rainbows (10,700)
City & Colour — Bring Your Love (10,400)
Britney Spears — Circus (10,100)
Feist — The Reminder (9,700)

Top 10 Selling Artists Of The SoundScan Era (1995-2008):
Celine Dion (7,027,000)
Shania Twain (4,225,000)
Backstreet Boys (4,100,000)
U2 (3,403,000)
Sarah McLachlan (3,143,000)
The Beatles (2,964,000)
Eminem (2,926,000)
Andrea Bocelli (2,770,000)
Britney Spears (2,696,000)
Metallica (2,669,000)

Top 10 Selling Albums Of The SoundScan Era (1995-2008):
Shania Twain — Come On Over (1,923,000)
Celine Dion — Let's Talk About Love (1,489,000)
Various Artists — Big Shiny Tunes 2 (1,233,000)
Andrea Bocelli — Romanza (1,120,000)
Shania Twain — Up! (1,090,000)
Aqua — Aquarium (1,084,000)
The Beatles — The Beatles 1 (1,081,000)
Sarah McLachlan — Surfacing (1,075,000)
Backstreet Boys — Millennium (1,073,000)
Backstreet Boys — Backstreet's Back (1,048,000)