US digital track sales down 6% in Q3 2013

US digital track sales declined by nearly 6% year-on-year in Q3 2013 according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Q3 2012, digital unit sales topped 311 million compared to 292.4 million during the same period this year.The format’s decline appears to be getting steeper with the latest drop following a 3.3% slip in the second quarter of the year and 1.3% decline in Q1.

Despite digital albums still being up 2.6% to 87.7 million year-to-date, a slow in growth in Q2 turned into a decline in the third by nearly 5% year-on-year to 26.9 million compared to 28.3 million in 2012

Meanwhile, overall album sales are down 6.1% (to 205.2 million) in the first nine months of the year Stateside. CD albums dropped 12.8% to 113.1 million but vinyl albums are up almost 30% to 4.1 million units

Sources: Music Week / Billboard