CHARTS 2008: THE YEAR'S FINEST FIGURES.

Market statistics for 2008 make heartening reading - they show not the doom and gloom some expected after a bleak 2007 but instead an indicator that the industry is moving in the right direction

By Ben Cardew

A quick glance at the recorded music industry's market statistics for 2008 is enough to remind the hardened insider of Benjamin Disraeli's celebrated maxim about the existence of three types of lies, namely "lies, damned lies and statistics".

But, if the figures provoke an outburst of disbelief, it will at least be one of happy incredulity. How, you might ponder, can the albums market for 2008 be down just 3.2% on 2007 - a rate of decline far lower than the 10.8% drop from 2006 to 2007 - when the industry recently suffered the collapse of two of its biggest retailers, Zavvi and Woolworths, as well as two leading distributors - EUK and Pinnacle? And how on earth can the sales for singles actually be up 33%, when the physical market is meant to be on its last legs?

The answers are complex. On the one hand, many of the negative effects of the economic downturn are yet to be felt within an industry that relies heavily on fourth-quarter sales - which goes some way to explain the widespread job cutting in the music industry as 2009 lumbers to a start. In addition, it is undoubtedly too early to assess the impact of the near collapse in high-street retail over the past few months.

The figures for the first quarter of 2009, as well as HMV's Christmas trading results, out this Thursday, are certain, then, to make interesting reading. What is more, the cynical observer may argue with some justification that the figures for 2007 were artificially low, dragged down by a poor fourth-quarter release schedule.

That said, the picture that the 2008 figures paint is by no means negative: the year saw digital sales continue to expand rapidly and this largely accounts for the resilient performance of the singles market, despite the ongoing demise of the CD single.