The BPI has issued new figures on music sales, which reveal that sales of legal music downloads have already topped half a million this year. This number is significant not only because it shows a huge increase but also because none of the major players in the market, Apple iTunes, Napster and Sony Connect, were operating in the UK during this period. The most frequently purchased download is 2000 Miles by Coldplay, followed closely by Outkast’s Hey Ya!

Other notable points in the report showed that while cassette sales totaled £418,000 in the first quarter of 2003, there were no shipments at all in the corresponding months of this year. Sales of CD singles are down almost a third, the most affected by the rise in downloads, while album sales saw a rise of 3% (a relief to the industry, who saw sales drop by the same amount last year) and 7” single increased in sales by a massive 47.8%.

BPI chairman Peter Jamieson said of these figures, “With 500,000 legal downloads sold already this year, we have hit yet another milestone in the development of this exciting new market for music. This is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for the music industry.”