U.S. album sales in a groove

U.S. album sales in a groove: "The U.S. record industry showed continuing renewed health through the first nine months of the year, with album sales rising 5.8% during that period, according to figures released Wednesday by Nielsen SoundScan. The American public bought 463 million albums in the first three quarters of the year versus 437 million during the same period last year. The ongoing upswing in sales, which began in the fourth quarter of 2003 after a downturn that lasted nearly three years, is encouraging as the music business approaches the December holidays, with its slate of major album releases. In the wake of last year's iTunes boom and an ongoing crackdown on illegal downloading by the industry, the digital music business continued to explode. Consumers purchased 94 million digital tracks through September, compared with just 19 million in the first nine months of last year."