midyear declines

FUN WITH NUMBERS: To the surprise of absolutely no one, year-to-date CD sales were off compared to the year earlier by a whopping 17.9%, Nielsen SoundScan reported. The news was even worse for catalog (-22.1%) than currents (-14.7%). Ironically, the album configuration registering the most positive movement the 20th century artifact vinyl, up 9.1% to 1.3 million, in a modest but heartening win for indie retail—and we all root for the underdog, right? Non-analog/non-physical albums rose 13.7% to 42 million—that would be purchased downloads, of course—while paid track downloads slipped a modest .2% to 597 million. (7/14a)