Nielsen SoundScan Canada and Nielsen BDS have announced their 2006 Canadian year-end sales and airplay monitoring data for the 52-week period ending December 31, 2006. In that time, the report states, digital music sales rose dramatically, with digital track sales totalling 14.9 million units for the year, an increase of 122% over the 6.7 million units sold in 2005. Sales of entire albums digitally increased from 462,000 in 2005 to over one million in 2006, also a 122% rise. Sarah McLachlan’s Wintersong album was the top selling digital album for the year, with fellow Canuck Nelly Furtado’s Loose ranking seventh. Universal Music Group captured a 35.05% market share of Canadian digital album sales, which was down from its 39.68% share in 2005, but still well ahead of second-ranking BMG’s 10.31%.

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