[Smithy]

album sales reached their lowest ebb of the 21st Century. A total of 1,446,218 albums were sold - less than any other seven-day period since 2000.

Adele sold 22,235 copies of 21 - the lowest weekly tally of its chart career.

Madonna fared even worse. A fortnight after it reached number one, a meagre 7,194 copies of her album MDNA were bought.

It is the first of Madonna's studio albums not to be in the Top 10 on its third week on the chart since 1984, when Like A Virgin spent its opening weeks in the low 60s.

Poor sales were partly due to the Easter holiday, said trade publication Music Week.

The situation is likely to improve this weekend, as music fans are enticed into shops by the limited edition releases available for Record Store Day.

[Jordan.]

I don't know why because it's getting harder to dl them illegally

[Locke.]

Lower the prices by a few quid and they'll go far higher and they'll make more money even though they are selling them for less

[Brother Leon]

Can't remember the last album I liked and bought...

[Niall]

I'm not surprised. Its so easy to torrent an album nowadays.

at Madonna though.

[Boothy]

Can't see CDs lasting much longer than five years. It'll be a sad day when they stop making them. I know I won't pay for music anymore, what's the point when you can get exactly the same thing for free? Only reason I pay for music at the moment is because I like my CD collection.

[Samuel.]

Sorta glad the media sharing sites are slowly being taken down one by one, as much as I download illegally myself.

I know people will argue the artists make their money touring anyway, but labels are starting to take decent chunks out of those earnings too. It's a mess.

[Niall]

I really couldn't give a crap if CD's died. I think they're a cumbersome waste of space personally. Storing music in the cloud is the way forward.