Digital single sales hit new high

A Japanese artist has scored a massive hit to become the world's biggest selling digital single star.

Udata Hikaru 's Flavor of Life [sic] has now topped 7.7 million sales across all digital formats - from ringtones to DRM-free downloads, ring videos to full track mobile downloads.

The succes of the song - which beats the previous 4.5 million sales record - is partly down to the fact that it's been played in its entirety at the end of a popular Japanese TV programme. EMI Music Japan had also been drip-feeding eager music buyers with the song in different digital formats for weeks before the physical single went on sale at the end of February.

Video blog

The record giant then capitalised on that release's success by enabling bloggers to add a video tag of the song to their websites - this led to the video being viewed more than 600,000 times in a single month, according to IFPI .

EMI Music Japan now says it hopes to repeat the Hikaru's success with other releases in future. A spokesman spokesman says:

"We will continue to deliver our artists' music in a variety of product types that is as diverse as consumers' needs. There will be more and more cases like Utada Hikaru where hits come from a coordinated approach to physical and digital releases."

So that's good then.