More than 40 million digital music tracks were purchased in Canada in 2008, a 58 per cent increase over the year before, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks sales of Canadian music.
For the third straight year, Canada has outpaced the U.S. in digital music sales, which rose 27 per cent last year in the states.
The top-selling songs were Just Dance by Lady Gaga and Colby O'Donis, Low by Flo Rida and I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry.
Rihanna sold more tracks than any other artist — 478,000 songs, Nielsen SoundScan reported. The top five digital artists are also women, including Britney Spears, Madonna, Perry and Lady Gaga, respectively.
Sales of all kinds of music — both digital, and traditional singles, albums and videos — grew by 11.5 per cent to 78.5 million units.
But while sales of single tracks have soared, total album sales fell by 8.5 per cent.
Overall, Canadians bought 40.6 million albums, down from 44 million in 2007, with AC/DC's Black Ice the biggest-selling album of the year.
Stores sales drop
Retail music stores are losing out in the music sales business, accounting for 58 per cent of all album sales, down from 63 per cent in 2007.
Other top-selling albums of 2008, including both digital and traditional sales, are Viva La Vida by Coldplay, Death Magnetic by Metallica and Dark Horse by Nickelback.
The top two selling artists in Canada in the period since 1995, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales, are Canadians — Céline Dion with seven million albums sold and Shania Twain with 4.2 million albums sold.
Among digital albums, the top five sellers since 1995 includes Viva La Vida, Feist's Reminder and the soundtrack to the indie movie Juno.
