According to a Billboard article published Wednesday, Neilsen Soundscan has reported an 11% decline in album sales during the first half of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007. Consumers purchased 204.6 million albums between January and June, over 25 million less than a year ago, but luckily not as sharp a decline as the 15.1% that occurred in the first half of 2007 as compared to 2006. Nielsen Soundscan told Billboard that the "drop is fueled largely by the 16.3% decrease in CD sales" despite digital album sales rising 34.4& to account for 15.4% of sales (31.6 million units).

Digital growth is still a productive and lucrative spot for the music industry, with single track downloads growing 30% to 532.7 million units in the first half of the year over first half sales in 2007 of 417.3 million units. Universal Music Group is still the most dominating music company, despite dropping .3% to 31.2% in sales. Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Group also fell, with Sony BMG dropping .5% to 24.8% and EMI dropping 1% to 9.4%. The only major music company to gain any ground was Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG), rising .8% to 20.8%. Independent music companies also rose in the first six months of 2008, capturing 13.9% of the market -- up 1%.

Declines in album sales are a constant trend in the music industry, so an 11% drop is no real surprise but the lowered decline over one year ago should cause some relaxation. The only problem with the drop in decline is that album sales are still falling off. Even though Nielsen Soundscan and Billboard both commented on the hope provided by single track downloads, the industry still looks to album sales to justify the recording and marketing of music. If that trend would change, single track downloads would make an obvious market to rely on. Instead, reports about declining album sales will still continue while single track downloads continue to grow.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is now the third largest music retailer in the U.S., according to a study by research firm NPD. iTunes now has a market share of 9.8% in the sales of albums. NPD defines "every 12 tracks purchased online as equivalent to an album in compact disc format" for the purpose of measuring online sales.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has now moved behind Apple in market share, and has only 6.6% of the market. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is still the leader at 15.8% followed by Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) at 13.8%.

But the retailers are likely to lose their positions to Apple soon, and the days where CD sales made up any significant part of their sales are coming to an end. Research operation SoundScan shows CD sales off 16% this year while digital sales are up 49%.

With same-store sales at multi-year lows, Wal-Mart and its competitors can hardly use one more headache. But, they have gotten one anyway.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.