December 30, 2008

By By Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A. and Silvio Pietroluongo, N.Y.

Weekly digital track sales have set a new record, with 47.7 million sold in the U.S. between Dec. 22 ? Dec. 28, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That figure for Christmas week represents a 126% spike from the week prior, a likely reflection of consumers redeeming download gift cards or receiving MP3 players as gifts. The week?s top-selling digital song was Interscope artist Lady GaGa?s "Just Dance," with 419,000 downloads.

Total digital track sales this year were 1,070,000,000 ? up 27% from 2007, based on full year-end data.

All but two songs on Billboard?s Hot Digital Songs chart increased their sales by triple-digit percentages last week. During the corresponding week last year, ten songs on that chart sold more than 200,000 downloads; this Christmas week, 15 songs did so.

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