Troy Peters drew my attention to record-sales statistics for the year 2006. Most categories showed falling album sales over the past year. The category that posted the biggest gain, from 15.8 to 19.4 million units, was, er, Classical. You may credit Il Divo, Bocelli, et al, but they were there the previous year, too. I think there's more to the story. I'd like to see category breakdowns for Internet and digital sales.... More: A reader points me to the Long Tail blog, where Chris Anderson takes note of the rise and attributes it (as I suspected) to high classical volume on online sites. People are buying more classical records for the simple reason that the Internet has made them easier to get. If you don't know the Long Tail theory, it's well worth reading up on.
