The trade body’s 2010 music sales figures show digital album sales grew by 30.6% to 21m over the year. However, overall album sales dropped by 7%.

Digital music sales did boost single sales, though, which grew by 5.9% in 2010 to reach 161.8m sold. Digital accounted for 98% of all single sales.

Geoff Taylor, CEO of the BPI, said, “2010 showed that the digital singles highs seen in the previous two years were no fluke. Music fans continue to embrace the convenience, value and choice offered by legal download stores. The market for digital albums also went mainstream in 2010, with nearly a fifth of sales coming from online services.”

According to the BPI, 5.2m tracks were downloaded in the final week of 2010 alone.

“However encouraging it is to see the digital market grow, this must be seen against the bigger picture,” added Taylor. “Despite unprecedented demand for music and strong innovation offering consumers new ways to access music online, legal downloads are unable to offset the decline in CD sales because they’re dwarfed by illegal competition.”