Top new studio albums help sales reach new record high. (News).

New studio albums demoted greatest hit sets to a mere co-starring role in the festive market, claiming seven of the 10 biggest-selling titles in December.

New recordings by Robbie Williams and Blue ensured a flourishing finish to the year as annual over-the-counter artist album sales reached a new high of 112.4m units, up 4.1% on 2001. In contrast, the US albums market shrunk by 8.7% over the year.

Woolworths' strategic unit head for entertainment Jim Batchelor identifies to quality of a number of artist albums as a key factor for sales reaching record levels, albeit in a market where some leading titles were selling as cheaply as 8.99 [pounds sterling].

"There were some pretty sexy releases, such as the Robbie album coming very late in the day," he says. "The consumer had a huge choice of product, both with new studio albums and greatest hits."

HMV's product director Steve Gallant says that, while music sales were slow in coming, those immediately before Christmas were strong. "Trading was up to expectations and since Christmas we have had a cracking start to the sale," he adds. "Music did very well in the last 10 days before Christmas--for consumers it was a last minute Christmas gift, whereas DVD and games performed throughout the period."

Safeway contributed to a strong showing by the supermarket sector, with home entertainment buyer Ria Forristal saying its sales rose 57% year-on-year during Christmas week.

Adrian Rondeau, owner of Adrians in Wickford, Essex, says Christmas sales were "satisfactory rather than stunning" after a brace of factors impacted on consumer ...