LOS ANGELES--Sales of jazz albums increased for the second year in a row, while overall CD sales decreased in 2003, according to information released Wednesday by Neilsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry’s data information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product.

Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me topped 5 million units in 2003. According to SoundScan, 23,060,000 jazz albums were sold in the past year, a 1.8 percent increase over the 22,642,000 sold in 2002.

Overall sales of CD albums dropped by about two percent from 2002, to 635.8 million units. Jazz albums represented over 3.6 percent of total music sales during 2003, up from under 3.5 percent the previous year.

Blue Note’s all time top-selling release, Norah Jones' debut crossover CD Come Away With Me was the second best selling album of 2003, with 5,137,468 units sold.

Jazz, Latin, and Alternative genres each saw sales increases in 2003, while all other categories dropped. Sales of classical albums dropped by 12.4 percent from 2002.

~ JazzWeek