UK singles sales hit record in 2009-music group

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Singles sales in Britain have hit a record high in 2009, already exceeding the previous peak in 2008 of 115.1 million.

With 10 weeks of the year still to go, singles sales have hit 117.6 million, 99 percent of which were sold in digital format.

The figure is good news for the recorded music industry, which has seen album sales worldwide tumble in recent years, partly due to internet piracy.

"This truly is the era of the digital single," said Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company which compiles the weekly music charts for singles and albums.

Lady Gaga has the two top-selling singles of the year so far, with "Poker Face" followed by "Just Dance". Black Eyed Peas are third and fifth with "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow" respectively, while La Roux's "In For The Kill" is fourth.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of industry group BPI, said the figures suggested the music market could "explode" in Britain if the government acted to tackle illegal peer-to-peer file sharers.

"That singles have hit these heights while there are still more than a billion illegal downloads every year in the UK is testimony to the quality of releases this year and the vibrancy of the UK download market," he said in a statement.

The British music industry is divided over how to tackle illegal downloads, with some stars supporting government proposals to block repeat offenders from accessing the web and others opposing what they see as draconian measures.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)