This statistic was actually first mentioned at New Music Seminar in New York, but got renewed attention at Digital Music Forum West this week.
It was presented by Eric Garland of BigChampagne during a data-focused panel, and Jay Frank of CMT subsequently offered more details to Digital Music News.
According to Nielsen Soundscan:
*On 6/27/10, the 2010 YTD Digital Tracks Current chart showed the Top 50 songs sold on that chart totaled 69,608,330.
*On 6/27/10, the National Sales Summary (Track) chart showed that YTD, there were 231,863,000 current tracks sold YTD.
This total is just over 30%.
“It may be semantics, but the operative words are ‘nearly’ and ‘current,'” Frank relayed.