It's much too early to call this a trend, but after 7 years of decline Nielsen Soundscan data is showing that U.S. music sales are up for the first half of 2011. Through the week ending July 3:

• Album sales (physical and digital) were up almost 1%
• Track Equivalent Albums were up 3.6% to 221.5 million units, from 213.6 million a year ago.

MORE DATA:

The album figures include compact discs and digital albums. Nielsen also counts 10 tracks sold individually as one album.

• The top-selling album was Adele's "21," with 2.5 million albums sold
• Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" was second with 1.5 million albums, thanks largely to the 99 cents promotion on Amazon
• Digital album sales are up 19%; and Digital tracks sales are up 11%.
• Overall music sales (albums, singles, music videos) are up 8.5%.
• Rap, Rock, Electronic, New Age, and Classical genres have all posted increases from 1% to 13%.