Jan 12, 2012         Leftfield         by Chris Z

In 2011, album sales rose for the first time since 2004, propelled by digital sales, cheaper album prices and special offers, as well as a booming vinyl market.

Nielsen released numbers revealing that US music sales rose 6.9% in 2011 with overall sales of albums, single tracks and music videos increased to 1.61 billion units. Total album sales expanded 1.3 percent to 330.6 million.

Despite a rise in sales, physical CD sales fell 6% last year, but digital album downloads made up for it by a 20% increase to a record 103.1 million.

Digital song sales grew 8.5% in 2011 to a record 1.27 billion downloads, compared with 1.17 billion in 2010.

Another area that boomed was vinyl sales - album sales soared to 3.9 million copies, versus 2.8 million in 2010.

2011's top-selling album was Adele's 21, raking in over 5.8 million sales. But, Lil Wayne made his mark at #4 with 1.9 million, with Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne coming in five slots later at #9 with just over 1.2 million sold.

However, The Throne did out-sell Weezy's Carter IV digitally, landing at #4 on the list behind Adele and Lady Gaga with 608,000 digital album sales.

Check out some of the numbers below, tracked by Nielsen.

Top Selling Artists
1. Adele, 6.74 million.
2. Justin Bieber, 3.39 million.
3. Michael Buble, 2.98 million.
4. Lady Gaga, 2.82 million.
5. Lil Wayne, 2.65 million.
6. Lady Antebellum, 2.18 million.
7. Glee Cast, 2.1 million.
8. Jason Aldean, 1.88 million.
9. Taylor Swift, 1.84 million.
10. Drake, 1.59 million.  

Top Selling Albums
1. 21 / Adele, 5.82 million.
2. Christmas / Michael Buble, 2.45 million.
3. Born This Way / Lady Gaga, 2.1 million.
4. Tha Carter IV / Lil Wayne, 1.9 million.
5. My Kinda Party / Jason Aldean, 1.57 million.
6. Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons, 1.4 million.
7. Take Care / Drake, 1.24 million.
8. Under The Mistletoe / Justin Bieber, 1.24 million.
9. Watch The Throne / Jay-Z & Kanye West, 1.23 million.
10. Own The Night / Lady Antebellum, 1.2 million.

Top Selling Digital Songs (all versions)
1. "Rolling In The Deep" / Adele, 5.81 milllion.
2. "Party Rock Anthem" / LMFAO, 5.46 million.
3. "E.T." / Katy Perry, 4.82 million.
4. "Moves Like Jagger" / Maroon 5, 4.11 million.
5. "Give Me Everything" / Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo & Afrojack, 3.87 million.
6. "Pumped Up Kicks" / Foster The People, 3.84 million.
7. "Someone Like You" / Adele, 3.75 million.
8. "F*** You (Forget You)" / Cee-Lo Green, 3.72 million.
9. "Super Bass" / Nicki Minaj, 3.6 million.
10. "Born This Way" / Lady Gaga, 3.47 million.

Top Selling Digital Tracks
1. "Rolling In The Deep" / Adele, 5.75 million.
2. "Party Rock Anthem" / LMFAO, 5 million.
3. "Moves Like Jagger" / Maroon 5, 4 million.
4. "Give Me Everything" / Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo & Afrojack, 3.79 million.
5. "Pumped Up Kicks" / Foster The People, 3.75 million.
6. "Someone Like You" / Adele, 3.75 million.
7. "E.T." / Katy Perry, 3.42 million.
8. "Sexy And I Know It" / LMFAO, 3.35 million.
9. "Born This Way" / Lady Gaga, 3.34 million.
10. "Super Bass" / Nicki Minaj, 3 million.

Top Selling Digital Albums
1. 21 / Adele, 1.8 million.
2. Born This Way / Lady Gaga, 877,000.
3. Sigh No More / Mumford & Sons, 761,000.
4. Watch The Throne / Jay-Z & Kanye West, 608,000.
5. Tha Carter IV / Lil Wayne, 603,000.
6. Mylo Xyloto / Coldplay, 573,000.
7. Take Care / Drake, 467,000.
8. Christmas / Michael Buble, 348,000.
9. Teenage Dream / Katy Perry, 299,000.
10. Torches / Foster The People, 294,000.

Top Selling Physical Albums
1. 21 / Adele, 4 million
2. Christmas / Michael Buble, 2. 1 million.
3. My Kinda Party / Jason Aldean, 1.32 million.
4. Tha Carter IV / Lil Wayne, 1.31 mllion.
5. Born This Way / Lady Gaga, 1.22 million.
6. Under The Mistletoe / Justin Bieber, 1 million.
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.

Top Vinyl Artists
1. Radiohead, 64,000.
2. Black Keys, 58,200.
3. Bon Iver, 47,100.
4. Beatles, 43,300.
5. Fleet Foxes, 42,600.
6. Tom Waits, 30,200.
7. Wilco, 30,100.
8. Jimi Hendrix, 29,700.
9. Bob Dylan, 27,400.
10. Nirvana, 27,000.