Compilations and CD box sets boosted albums sales in the Christmas week, but could not offset a 10 per cent decline across the music industry this year.

Album sales reached 8.3 million last week, up almost two million on the previous week, according to the British Phonographic Industry. However, although comparable to last year, the figure was down from the 8.6 million artist albums (and not including compilations) sold during the 2005 Christmas week. The best-selling Christmas album was EMI/ Universal’s Now 68 singles compilation, headed by Leona Lewis, the 2006 winner of The X Factor, and Take That.

Amy Winehouse took sales of her Back to Blackalbum to 1.76 million this year, making her the market leader, followed by Lewis’s debut album Spirit, which has sold 1.43 million copies.

Single-track sales soared to 2.17 million last week, boosted by 276,000 sales of the Christmas No 1 by Leon Jackson, the recent winner of The X Factor. The singles market enjoyed a 10 per cent revival this year as legal track downloads became the norm.

Stores reported brisk sales of CD gift box sets, an idea borrowed from the DVD film industry. A spokesman for HMV said: “A deluxe version of the Winehouse album [with extra tracks] just kept selling, along with special editions of Take That, The Eagles and U2 albums. Led Zeppelin was a good performer, along with crossover singers like Katherine Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli. Christmas showed that the demise of the CD has been greatly exaggerated.”

With downloads of full albums failing to make up for the CD slump, struggling record companies are pinning their hopes for 2008 on the return of Coldplay, U2 and Dido. A wave of new female artists is tipped to break through, including Adele, Duffy and Laura Marling.

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