Music fans in the US are buying almost twice as many singles in digital form over the internet as they are on CDs from stores.

Some 7.7 million tracks were bought and downloaded since the end of June - compared with four million CD singles sold, Billboard magazine reported.
But some say online and CD single sales cannot be compared because so few singles are now released on CD.

Record companies have cut CD single releases because of falling sales, but fans can choose from 500,000 songs for $0.99 (£0.60) each on some internet services.

In the week ending 26 October, 857,000 songs were sold over the internet - compared to just 170,000 in record shops, Billboard said.

The digital sales had a "symbolic significance" because they marked the music industry's move to digital operations, Sean Ryan, vice president of music at RealNetworks, said.

"Selling individual songs as an offline strategy wasn't working all that well, but online it can be a huge hit," he said.

Official sales tracking body Nielsen SoundScan began tracking download sales in the last week of June.


BBC