"Confessions," the latest from R&B singer Usher [ tickets ], sold more copies in the U.S. during 2004--by a wide margin--than any other album.

With sales of about 8 million copies, the album outdistanced the year's second-best-selling release--Norah Jones [ tickets ]' "Feels Like Home"--by more than two-to-one; the total year-end sales figure for "Confessions," however, includes copies of the album's original version, which surfaced last March, as well as a special-edition version that houses four bonus tracks--including "My Boo," Usher's hit duet with singer Alicia Keys--that hit stores in October.

Released last February, Jones' "Feels Like Home" moved about 3.8 million copies, according to year-end data from Nielsen SoundScan, the service that tracks U.S. album sales. It is the second consecutive year that Jones has held the title of second-best-selling album of the year; her Grammy-winning debut, "Come Away With Me," landed at No. 2 on 2003's year-end sales chart after moving about 5.1 million copies.

Coming in at No. 3 for 2004 is Eminem [ tickets ]'s "Encore," which closely trailed Jones with sales of about 3.5 million copies; "Encore," however, hit that mark in only about seven weeks, as the set didn't arrive in stores until mid-November.

Country singer Kenny Chesney [ tickets ] claims the No. 4 slot with "When the Sun Goes Down," which moved about 3 million copies, beating out the No. 5 entry--country newcomer Gretchen Wilson [ tickets ]'s "Here for the Party"--by about 140,000 copies.

A tightly-grouped pack of albums rounds out the bottom half of 2004's Top 10, with Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" at No. 5 with sales of about 2.78 million copies; Maroon 5's "Songs About Jane" at No. 6 with sales of about 2.7 copies; Evanescence's "Fallen"--which was 2003's No. 4 top-selling album, and is the only 2003 set to also land on the 2004 list--at No. 8 with sales of about 2.6 million copies; Ashley Simpson's "Autobiography" at No. 9 with sales of about 2.57 million copies; and the "NOW! That's What I Call Music! Vol. 16" hits compilation closing things out at No. 10 with sales of about 2.56 million copies.

Industry snapshot

After four consecutive years of steadily declining sales, the record industry can finally take heart in a turnaround during 2004; total sales for the year rose from 687 million units in 2003 to 817 million units. That figure includes albums, singles and digital tracks, the latter of which largely accounted for the boost; after selling about 19.2 million units between late June of 2003 (when Nielsen SoundScan first began tracking digital sales) and the end of that same year, digital tracks totaled 140,902,000 for 2004; digital album sales--which weren't tracked until 2004--totaled about 5.5 million.

In December, Apple announced that its iTunes Music Store had sold a total of 200 million tracks since its launch in April of 2003.

CD album sales, which account for 98% of all album sales, rose 2.3 percent over 2003's total, with 666.7 million sold in 2004; sales of Latin and country albums experienced double-digit growth, with increases of 16 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

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