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Downloads rose by 152 per cent year-on-year, leading the BPI to suggest that the digital market is complementary to the physical, although only last week it was telling us that music downloading was having an adverse effect on CD sales.

'Recent successes from Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz and the Arctic Monkeys show how digital can be complementary to physical. The lesson of history is that new technology expands the market for music and that is why record companies are so enthusiastically embracing the new digital formats,' said BPI chairman Peter Jamieson.

'We thought it would take three years, but in just 30 months the UK record industry has transformed itself from one that was 100 per cent focused on physical product to the most advanced digital music market in Europe.'

Digital tracks have revitalised singles sales and now comprise 78 per cent of a market that has grown by 44 per cent over the past year.

The only sector that hasn't benefited is compilation albums, since it is now easy for music fans to assemble their own.