Ananova:

Album sales in the UK hit a record high in 2003 after increasing by 7.6%.

An industry report said the rise was fuelled by falling CD prices - in spite of piracy fears.

Almost 121 million artist albums, which exclude compilations, were sold - according to Official UK Charts Company figures quoted in Music Week magazine.

Dido had the year's best-selling album with Life For Rent, followed by Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, reports the BBC.

In the singles market, the Black Eyed Peas had the biggest seller of 2003.

But there was no good news for the singles market as overall sales continued to slide, with a drop of nearly 30%.

Black Eyed Peas sold 625,000 copies of the Where is the Love?, which stayed at number one for six weeks.

Their follow-up track Shut Up shifted 222,000 to make them the biggest selling artists of the year in terms of single sales.

But their overall sales of 848,000 units pales next to Will Young's tally of 2,520,000 singles sold in 2002.