For the fourth year in a row, record music sales have fallen worldwide and in the United States.

Industry numbers released Thursday show a drop of nearly 8 percent globally and 6 percent in the U.S.

Record company executives blame the decline on illegal music downloads and a consumer spending shift from CDs to video games and DVDs. In the last four years, global music sales have fallen about 20 percent overall.

To help defray losses, record companies laid off thousands of employees, cut their artist lists and pursued legal action against people who illegally download music off the Internet.

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