Adding the Beatles catalog to iTunes has provided a boost for the struggling music industray. As a whole, digital music sales saw a 1.6 percent uptick as of this month, according to data from Nielsen.
Sale of digital tracks increased by 16.8 percent and digital album sales grew 9.6 percent. Digital music retailers saw their total sales increase by 12.4 percent.
Part of this positive growth is attributable to the long-awaited of the addition of the Fab Four's music into the iTunes library. Nielsen said catalog albums sales increased by 5.4 percent in 2011.
"Strong releases and aggressive promotions by the labels and retailers are among the many contributing factors to the strength we're seeing in the music industry," said Dave Bakula, Nielsen's senior vice president of analytics and entertainment. "Overall, the data reflects a continuing strong demand by music consumers."
In November, Apple made the music of notorious iTunes holdout, the Beatles, available in the iTunes store. The addition of the Liverpool group's music in the store signified the end to a years-long disagreement between Apple and the Beatles. Sales were strong from the get-go, with Beatles tracks and albums dominating the iTunes top 200 for several weeks.
Nielsen also found that while physical CD sales have slumped, vinyl is making a comeback. Vinyl record sales have swelled by 37 percent in the first part of 2011, and they increased by 14.2 percent in 2010.