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Sales of digital music in Canada increased in 2008, but were not enough to make up for the loss of physical album sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada.

Overall album sales declined 8.5 percent compared to 2007, which shows that the digital growth did not offset the decline in physical sales during the year.

More than 40 million digital tracks were purchased in 2008 representing an increase of nearly 60 percent over 2007 compared to a 73 percent increase in 2007 over 2006.

Digital album sales increased nearly 70 percent compared to 2007 with sales of 3.4 million compared to 4.7 million sales in 2007 and accounted for 10 percent of total album sales in 2008. In 2007 digital album sales increased 93 percent compared to 2006.

In the final reporting week of 2008, digital track sales surpassed 1.8 million, breaking the previous sales record of 1.2 million.

Digital album sales in the final reporting week broke the 1100,000 mark for the first time with album sales of 142,000, surpassing the previous record of 99,500.

The top 200 digital tracks accounted for 19 percent of all track purchases in 2008; 7.7 million sales compared to 4.7 million sales in 2007.