Statistics released by the BPI have revealed that sales of albums in the UK dropped by 10% in 2012.

The figures also showed that as well as overall sales figures for albums being down, the CD album  has suffered the most with a drop of 19.5 percent from the previous year and only 69.4m albums sold.

The combined sales of digital and physical albums dropped by 11.2% but it isn't all bad news for the music industries with sales of singles being at a new high.

An absolutely staggering 188.6 million singles were sold this year with 99.6% of those being digital copies of songs, proof maybe that the single isn't dead but that the way in which we are consuming  has changed.

Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, spoke to Music Week and said: “2012 was an encouraging year for UK artists and for music’s digital future. Digital albums grew strongly and singles sales hit a new record. Music fans are now streaming billions of songs from new services enabled by record labels.

“The Jubilee celebrations and the London 2012 Olympics provided a great showcase for British music internationally, but market conditions at home remained difficult and pressure on the ‘leisure wallet’ impacted music sales on the high street.

“However, the quality of our music and digital innovation by UK labels means we have excellent potential for domestic growth and to increase our share of the global music market. We hope Government will recognise the potential of digital music to contribute to economic recovery and provide more active support in 2013.”