American chartwatch. (International).

According to data collected by SoundScan for its Billboard chart computations, singles sales in the US this year appear to be in total meltdown, with a downturn of 60%, compared to 2001, which was itself a disaster. We rarely mention singles sales here because they are so insignificant -- and this week they are the worst to date with a lowest-yet tally of 15,743 sales sufficing for Girlfriend by 'N Sync and Nelly to be the week's biggest seller. Only three other singles sold more than 5,000 copies and the Top 200 singles together shifted just 173,354 copies. When all other singles sales are added in, the overall tally is still well short of 250,000. To take one specific single, Cher's (This Is) A Song For The Lonely hit retail six weeks ago. As the first single from the number nine album Living Proof, the track gained lots of airplay pre-release, it was the subject of a heavy promotional push and seemed to have everything going for it. But, despite being issued on both 12-inch vinyl and CD in seven mixes, it has so far sold 17,714 copies.

Album sales have not suffered so badly, but are still off by more than 9% this year, not least because of a dearth of high-profile new releases. In this climate, there are only two albums in the Top 20 which increase sales week-on-week, these being Josh ...