What was true for the first three months of 2007 is now true for the first six months: CD sales are plummeting.

The AP is reporting that a total of 229.8 million albums were sold in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and July 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released on Wednesday. That's a 15 percent decrease over the same period last year. On the other hand, digital tracks sales increased 49 percent to 417.3 million this year. If you put the two together, you still end up with a 9.2 percent decline overall.

The AP said that "the trend away from albums and toward digital tracks has been going on for a few years, with industry insiders saying it is fueled by pop music's emphasis on hit singles. Consumers simply buy the songs they want and skip the albums."

In other words, this is largely the record industry's doing. For years, they've been putting one good song on albums that cost $18, so it's no wonder that people are only buying the singles.

Maybe we need a return to the glory days of concept albums, when people bought and listened to Dark Side of the Moon from beginning to end, because the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Wait, gotta run: American Idol is on.

Album Sales Down, Digital Track Sales Up [AP via 1010 WINS]