In just six weeks, British spinster/singer Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed A Dream" became the biggest selling album in Canada last year. But record companies and music retailers were left dreaming of the good old days of the '90s when their business was still on the rise and making big profits.

Boyle's LP sold 319,000 copies, just edging out Lady Gaga's "The Fame" debut by 4,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan Canada data for the 52-week period January 5, 2009 through January 3, 2010. I wonder how many people purchased both for themselves.

Michael Buble's "Crazy Love" was the best seller by a Canadian artist with 290,000, which placed it fourth overall for the year and first among crooners who own a stake in the Vancouver Giants junior team of the Western Hockey League.

The buying frenzy that followed Michael Jackson's death pushed him to become the year's biggest seller, when all album sales are combined, with 651,000. Slightly more than 700,000 Jackson albums were sold in the 13 years prior to 2009, which either makes that first sales figure look even more impressive or makes you realize how little people cared about the self-proclaimed "King of Pop" before his fatal accidental drug overdose last June, which resulted in his personal physician being charged with involuntary manslaughter today.

Two Canadian women are still the sales champs of the Nielsen SoundScan era, which dates back to 1995. Celine Dion has sold 7.1 million records, including 1.5 million copies of "Let's Talk About Love." Shania Twain's "Come On Over" accounted for 1.9 million of her 4.2 million total. Do you think Dion and Twain fans have moved to either the Boyle or Gaga camps in the past year?

Coldplay's "Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends" is the biggest selling digital album of the Nielsen SoundScan era with more than 60,000 downloads, with about three-quarters of those coming in 2008.

Black Eyed Peas racked up the most digital download track sales in 2009 with 855,000. The group ranks second in total digital sales in the Nielsen SoundScan era with 1,178,000, right behind Rihanna's 1,183,000 and just ahead of Gaga's 1,160,000. The biggest selling digital song during this period is the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" with 344,000 downloads. Gaga's "Poker Face" and "Just Dance" come in at #2 and #3 with respective sales of 318,000 and 287,000.

Total album sales declined by 2.2 per cent last year compared to 2008, which continued the music industry's downward spiral. Big increases in digital music sales weren't enough to offset the discouraging big picture.
 
A record-breaking total of more than 56 million tracks were downloaded in 2009, which was an increase of almost 40 per cent over the previous year. Digital album sales rose to 4.8 million from 3.4 million, which gave the download market a 13.6-per cent share of overall album sales.

—Steve McLean