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The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the British recorded music business, said that download sales last week were just below the three million mark, the largest one-week sales total to date in the UK.

 The numbers from the Official Charts Company revealed that last week's download sales grew by more than half on the previous week. The BPI attributes the spike in sales to digital music players and to consumers spending vouchers that were given as Christmas gifts to download music.

The surge in demand from new digital consumers along with steady growth of download sales throughout 2007 meant that last week's 2.9 million sales total were more than double that during the same period in 2006.

The BPI said that total music download sales for all of 2007 reached 77 million, a 50 percent increase over 2006.

BPI Director of Communications Matt Phillips said: "Recent years have seen a boost in download sales in the week after Christmas, but this was a larger increase than expected, and sales should continue to grow throughout 2008."

"The enormous choice of music and great value for money, combined with the ease and convenience of downloading, means legal digital music services are becoming increasingly popular with music fans."