MUMBAI: According to newly released figures from the official UK Charts Company - the group which tracks U.K. chart positions, the digital album sales climbed by 69.3 percent in comparison to the first quarter of 2007. The company also confirmed that sales of digital single tracks climbed 42.3 percent, every year.

The news is encouraging for the music industry since it means that digital music buyers are beginning to see album purchases as viable as using services such as iTunes.

The industry which has often voiced its concern over iTunes not stimulating enough album sales seems happy with the growth. Apparently, these figures are interesting for the industry because 2007 was a banner year for digital sales, with 77.96 million single tracks and 6.25 million albums sold digitally in U.K that year, according to the Official UK Charts Company.