London, April 23 : Music sales all over the world took a dip by more than 8 per cent to 18.42 billion dollars in 2008, reveals the body that represents the record industry globally.

According to figures released by the Official Charts Company, sale of physical formats such as CDs and vinyl sank particularly by 15 per cent worldwide and 31 per cent in the US.

Even though sales of digital format like MP3s and ringtones bloomed by as much as 24 per cent, yet it fell short to compensate for the loss, reports the BBC.

The reason was accorded to the downloads that were being offered at lower prices and also because not entire albums were being purchased on the Internet.

It was revealed that just 10.3 million albums were downloaded in the UK last year as compared to 110.3 singles of individual songs.

Pirated music was also cited as an important cause behind the overall tumbling music sales.

As per separate IFPI figures revealed earlier this year, Coldplay''s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends became last year's best-selling album worldwide, selling 6.8 million copies.

AC/DC's Black Ice trailed behind, followed by the soundtrack to Mamma Mia! The Movie. (ANI)