CD music sales decreased 7 per cent in the United States during the first half of the year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says.
The RIAA estimate the decline cost $284 million in lost sales and says the figures are a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry.
The decline, measured by PricewaterhouseCoopers, compares with a 5.3 per cent drop in CD shipments in the first half of 2001.
The RIAA says the industry uses just-in-time delivery, so CD shipments are reliably indicative of actual sales.
The association also released a separate survey of Internet users' music habits that found most consumers between the ages of 12 and 54 bought fewer CDs as they downloaded more tracks.
Of the consumers polled whose downloading increased during the last six months, 41 per cent reported buying less music, compared with 19 per cent who said they were purchasing more, Mr Geoff Garin, of Peter Hart Research Associates, who did the telephone survey of 860 consumers for the RIAA.
Among those polled who said they were downloading the same amount as six months earlier, 25 per cent said they purchased less music, compared with 13 per cent who bought more.
Previous studies independent of the music industry have suggested that access to free music on the Web encourages consumers to experiment with new acts and buy more CDs.
PA