Sales bounce back in bumper Xmas; single by X-Factor winner spearheads healthy seasonal run on shops for Christmas product.(Retail)

The pre-Christmas success of albums by Eminem, James Blunt and Robbie Williams and a storming X-Factor single from Shayne Ward helped transform a December sales period for the business.

Sales for the four weeks leading up to Christmas reached 30.46m in 2005, up 3.4% on the 29.5m sold in 2004 and on par with 2003's 30.4m in the same period.

Direct comparisons are slightly flawed because of the differences in the days when Christmas Day falls--on a Thursday in 2003, a Saturday in 2004 and Sunday in 2005--effectively leaving 2004 with one day less trade, and 2003 with two days less. But the turnaround in December 2005'S business was remarkable. The final week leading into Christmas Eve saw a massive 38% uplift on the previous week, as predictions of a later-than-ever Christmas proved spot on.

Some 10.6m albums were sold in this final week, including 8.6m artist albums and 2.0m compilation albums.

In contrast, 6.9m artist albums were sold in the six days immediately prior to Christmas 2004, a festive season which matched up to what were viewed as impressive sales of 2003.

The performance of singles also boomed in the week of Christmas itself, driven by the 742,180 sales of Shayne Ward's X-Factor number one That's My Goal. In total, 2.17m singles were sold in the final week leading up to Christmas, more than double the 10.9m sold during the previous week. The figure is an extraordinary three times higher than the number of singles sold in the six days leading up to Christmas Day 2004, and still more than double the 940,000 sold during four days in 2003. While this year's figures include downloads for the first time--which amounted to 863,000 units in the week before Christmas--the physical market on its own accounted for 1.3m units.

Even aside from Ward's record-breaking hit--the first to become Christmas ...