The Gospel Music Association has released the 2005 year-end sales data for the 52-week period ending January 1, 2006. Total album sales topped 39 million units, down 8% from the previous year. The music industry overall saw an overall decline of 7.2% in music sales.
Topping the list of overall best selling Christian and Gospel albums were:
#1 Switchfoot’s Nothing Is Sound (Columbia/Sparrow) with 449,102 units sold
#2 Casting Crown’s Lifesong (Beach Street/Reunion), 430,227 units sold
#3 Relient K’s MMHMM (Capital/Gotee), 421,291 units sold
#4 Switchfoot’s The Beautiful Letdown (Columbia/Sparrow) 407,482 units sold
#5 Kirk Franklin’s Hero (GospoCentric), 377,123 units sold
(Units sold includes all titles in the Nielsen Christian SoundScan system, regardless of genre or catalog status, as well as all digital album downloads.)
The top selling praise and worship album was Chris Tomlin’s Arriving (sixsteprecords); the top selling digital album download was Switchfoot’s Nothing Is Sound (Columbia/Sparrow); the top selling southern gospel album was Bill and Gloria Gaither and Homecoming’s Israel Homecoming (Spring Hill); the top selling video was Tommy Nelson Kid’s Hermie & Friends’ “Buzby the Misbehaving Bee”.
Also of note:
– Mainstream retail outlets accounted for 61% of all Christian/gospel music sales.
– Capitol/Gotee’s Relient K had the most downloaded Christian music single, “Be My Escape”, with 123,858 digital tracks sold.
– Christian/gospel remains the sixth most popular genre, surpassing Latin, soundtracks, jazz, classical and new age music sales.
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