The struggling music industry could be seeing the first signs of recovery, with figures showing online downloads more than doubled in Britain in the last week of 2007 compared with 2006.
The industry, which has been hit by illegal piracy, is looking to online sales to offset fallingCD sales and last week's figures were likely boosted by consumers going online after receiving digital music players such as Apple's iPods and music vouchers for Christmas.
Online music sales reached 2.9 million tracks in the last week of 2007, more than double that of the corresponding week in 2006 and the largest one-week sales tally recorded to date in Britain, the Official Charts Company said.
The BPI, which represents the British recorded music business, said total music download sales for the year topped 77 million, a 50 per cent increase on 2006 - contrasting with a drop in sales of CDs.
