Lady Antebellum leads album sales for 1st-half 2010

Country trio Lady Antebellum tops the midyear tally of album sales.

The group's "Need You Now" is the year's biggest-selling album so far with 2.4 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures through the week ended July 4.

Thanks to Eminem's recently released "Recovery," five albums -- compared to last year's four -- have sold at least a million copies in the first half of 2010.

Justin Bieber's "My World 2.0" is in second place with sales of 1.4 million, and Sade's "Soldier of Love" is third with a little over 1.2 million. Lady Gaga's "The Fame" is fourth with 1.2 million. "Recovery" has moved 1.1 million in just two weeks' time, placing it at No. 5 on the midyear list of best-selling albums.

Eminem and Gaga also made it into the quartet of million-sellers at the midyear point of 2009. The rapper's last release, "Relapse," was the third-best seller with 1.2 million, while Gaga's "The Fame" was fourth with 1 million. Taylor Swift's "Fearless" topped the list with 1.4 million, and the "Hannah Montana: The Movie" soundtrack was second with a little over 1.2 million.

Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" also reigns as the year's best-selling country set, while Sade's "Soldier of Love" is the biggest R&B/hip-hop album. Eminem's "Recovery" is tops among rap efforts, and Jack Johnson's "To the Sea" (481,000) is the biggest rock album. Rounding out the genre rundown, Aventura's "The Last" is the largest seller among Latin albums (100,000), and Kings of Leon's "Only by the Night" is the best-selling catalog title (248,000).

Year-to-date album sales stand at 154.0 million, down 11 percent from the year-earlier period.

The best-selling digital song for the six months is Train's "Hey, Soul Sister," with 3.4 million, making it the only tune to shift more than 3 million this year. Another 13 tracks sold more than 2 million each. At this point of 2009, three songs had moved more than 3 million -- Flo Rida's "Right Round," Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and the Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" -- while another five had done more than 2 million apiece.

Year-to-date track sales are at 597.4 million, down less than 1 percent from the year-earlier period.