Not Jay-Z’s concept album. Not Alicia Keys’ monstrous comeback. Not even a staged chart battle between Kanye and 50 could save the music industry in ‘07.

U.S. album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, as the beleaguered recording industry marked another weak year of sales despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks, according to figures released Thursday.

A total of 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats were purchased last year, down 15 percent from 2006’s unit total, said Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks point-of-purchase sales…

The number of digital tracks sold, meanwhile, jumped 45 percent to 844.2 million, compared to 588.2 million in 2006, with digital album sales accounting for 10 percent of total album purchases. [ Full Story: SFGate ]

Same sh*t. Different toilet.