British Sales Up for 2009

BRITISH SALES CREEP UPWARD: Recorded music sales in the U.K. actually gained 1.4% in 2009, thanks to an upbeat Q4, according to BPI. Overall revenues topped 928.8 pounds ($1.44 billion), while digital was up 47.8% to 188.9 million pounds. Physical continued to drop, losing 6.1% to 787.8 million pounds ($1.22 billion), still 85% of the total. Officials were cautiously optimistic after the gains followed five years of losses, with total sales not exceeding one billion pounds since 2006. (4/27a)