Albums and singles sales post a rise.(The Market)

After hitting 13- and 35-week lows respectively the week before, the singles and albums market both improved last week.

The singles market was only barely up, however, increasing by just 6,818 sales, or 1.4%, to 482,632. Albums made a more robust 12.75% improvement week-on-week to 2,448,613--their highest tally for four weeks. The singles market's modest improvement masked significant differences in individual formats. CDs were unchanged, cassette sales were down 26% to their lowest level for more than 20 years at 0.112%, while seven-inch vinyl was up a quarter week-on-week to 3.6%--its highest level for 10 years.

With 12-inch sales also improving (by 12%), the two vinyl formats took a combined 13.9% share of the market. That's barely down on the 17.6% share it had exactly 10 years ago and well up on this week five years ago, when it was just 5.3%. The top eight singles on the seven-inch chart are all new entries, with The Killers' Mr Brightside at number one with sales of more than 2,500, while Trick Me by Kelis debuts atop the 12 inch chart with 1,800 buyers.

On the overall singles chart, the top five is once again an all-urban area, with Frankee, Eamon, Cassidy and The ...