Overall album sales on the other hand dropped -8.5% to 535.4 million while digital album sales soared 32% to 65.8 million units sold in 2008. While the digital future keeps growing, old school vinyl is making a major resurgence and jumped 89% last year to 1.88 million LPs sold.

Before we get into the top selling artists etc, an interesting side note: while MTV and their assorted channels, radio, and the labels seem to focus a lot of their energy on rap, R&B and country, it appears that alternative, rock and metal are far more popular with record buyers. Rap took a nose dive of almost 20% in 2008 with sales of 33,410 million units, compare that to the 50,476 million metal albums sold. R&B which dominates Top 40 radio only managed sales of 77,014 million (a drop of almost 20% from 2007). Country music was the worst hit in sales decline, falling 24% in 2008 to end up BEHIND metal in sales at 47,657 million. While all genres saw a drop in sales in 2008, it was the rock related ones that declined the least. Alternative CD sales fell -8.7% with 80,919 million units sold. Rock declined -6.5% with 139,666 units sold (interesting almost twice as much as R&B. MTV pay attention to why your ratings are dropping) and metal saw the smallest decline in sales with only a -4.7% drop in 2008.

Who were the biggest sellers of 2008? Taylor Swift came out on top with 4,003,000 units sold. AC/DC roared back in 2008 coming in at No. 2 with sales of 3,418,000. Lil Wayne was 3 with 3,382,000. Coldplay came in fourth with 2,691,000. Metallica was fifth with 2,466,000 with Kid Rock just behind them with 2,405,000 albums sold last year. The rest of the top 10 looked like this:
7. Jonas Brothers (2,340,000)
8. Sugarland (2,063,000)
9. Nickelback (1,953,000) 1
0. Jack Johnson (1,895,000).

Did someone say vinyl sales almost doubled? Here is how the top 10 vinyl albums sales ended up in 2008:
1. In Rainbows/ Radiohead
2. Abbey Road / Beatles
3. Chinese Democracy / Guns N' Roses
4. Funplex/ B-52's
5. Third/ Portished
6. In the Aeroplane� /Neutral Milk Hotel
7. Dark Side of the Moon/ Pink Floyd
8. Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes
9. Death Magnetic/ Metallica
10. O.K. Computer/ Radiohead

Speaking to various fan forums and message boards, the singer said there was a wealth of material left over which could be released in the near future. "For now we'll concentrate and keep our focus on this album but I will say I've always thought of it as a double," he said.

Per the surviving Dead mates' website, their latest jaunt will encompass nearly 20 dates between mid-April and mid-May.

Jack Black may have been schooled in rock, but now he'd like to sing at the Grand Ole Opry with wife Tanya Haden's family, who recently turned him on to bluegrass music. more

Teen country star Taylor Swift led the U.S. pop album chart for a fourth week on Wednesday, while Beyonce rebounded three places to No. 2 with her former chart-topper.more

The Allman Brothers Band will play 10 shows at New York's Beacon Theater in March after scrapping the 2008 edition of its annual residency while frontman Gregg Allman recovered from hepatitis C.more

Prince says he is releasing three albums�likely through an exclusive deal with a major retailer�in 2009, including an electro-pop effort tentatively titled MPLSOUND and Lotus Flower, tracks from which were featured on L.A. indie station 103.1 FM this year.more

Guns N' Denials: The GNR camp claim it was only a fun comment taken out of context� we're talking about the story that Lars from Metallica is somehow holding up the release of the new Guns N' Roses video. details. It seems everyone in the GNR camp is misunderstood these days because guitarist Richard Fortus now claims that he was misquoted in a report that the band planned a two year long world tour. Damn. More details on that here

Wilco will release its first concert DVD, "Ashes of American Flags," chronicling February 2008 visits to Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and Tulsa, Okla.'s Cain Ballroom. The project is due in February or March from Nonesuch, just in advance of the next Wilco studio album, which the band is now recording. more

Due to severe illness The Damned will not be able to complete the North American dates of their world tour. The band was touring in support of their December release So, Who's Paranoid?.more

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of their sophomore album, Paul's Boutique, Beastie Boys have announced plans to reissue the classic disc. The new disc will be digitally remastered for the first time with the hands-on trio in the studio overseeing the process.more

My Darkest Hate, the German death metal band featuring former Primal Fear drummer Klaus Sperling, has parted ways with bassist Andreas Siegl (Black Abyss, ex-Paradox). more

Which band told Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner to "stick it up his ass" and doesn't care about Jann's Crock Hall of Fame and actually turned down Rolling Stone magazine when they offered them the cover? Find out here

Bleed The Sky, Straight Line Stitch, and Flatline will tour together briefly next month.more

Dr Dre's son died after taking an overdose of heroin and morphine, Los Angeles County coroners have revealed.more

Into The Moat has titled their new full-length "The Campaign" and debuted a track from the album online. Metal Blade Records will release the effort on February 17th.more
Jesse Michaels has released some information on his new band - Classics of Love. The band features Michaels on guitar and vocals, Mike Huegenor on guitar, Morgan Herell on bass and Max Feshbach on drums - all three other members are currently in The Hard Girls and have played in Pteradon and Shinobu. Jesse's comments

The Zeppelin front man led a host of Brit talents in the vote by digital radio station Planet Rock.

The singer intends to put out a record of his own songs, but will not be quitting his other bands. Taylor is so eager to release an album, that he's already written over 40 songs.

The shock-rocker's camp has unveiled a witness wish list that includes his ex-wife, his Nine Inch Nails-fronting mentor to testify on his behalf in an upcoming court showdown with estranged keyboardist Stephen Bier.

The singer says of the forthcoming record, due sometime in 2009: "You know, we've made concepts for three albums now, so I think this one - at least from my standpoint - I want to go into it not thinking about a definite story."

Seven weeks after the 71-year-old country legend had a lemon-sized tumor removed in what he calls "the greatest test of my fortitude," he said on Wednesday that he expects to work harder in 2009 than he has in 20 years.

NHOR : I've got to ask you the inevitable question Mark... what do you feel the chances are of the original Grand Funk reuniting again for even a few shows? When I talked with Don Brewer about it he seemed to tense up at the mention of the subject. What's the situation, and do you ever feel it will happen again?

MF : As for me, I've been trying to put the band back together. I talked to Capitol Records prior to that DVD that you spoke of,(Grand Funk's Greatest Hits) with the Shea footage and the companion CD that accompanied it. I sat across the table from those guys in California, and told them I wanted to promote this. I thought that the three original members should be promoting this product, because it would get the most sales. Isn't that what putting the product out there is all about? I went to Capitol because I knew if I went to the other two guys that Don would keep it from Mel, and they wouldn't even entertain it. Just because of what's going on there. I went to Capitol, and they called those guys, Don told them that they didn't want to do it, and that they would use their version of Grand Funk to promote it. And of course, Capitol passed.

NHOR : There are a lot of fans who feel that without you it just isn't Grand Funk Railroad....

MF : Well, I appreciate that, and it isn't. That's what I've always said. Grand Funk has been three amigos and nobody else. There's no other three people on this earth that can make that sound.

NHOR : What do you feel at this point are the chances of Grand Funk Railroad ever getting into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame? Why do you think the band isn't in there already?

The title track"School's Out" became Alice Cooper's first major hit single, and propelled the album to #2 on the Billboard 200, selling over a million copies.