Titanic Album

While the movie Titanic continues to break box office records in cinemas all over the world, the films soundtrack album is setting new records in the music business. The album, released by the classical music subsidiary of Sony Music, sold 664,594 copies last week in the US, where it has topped the chart for 10 weeks, and is now selling strongly in other countries. Sony Music, which admits that it initially underestimated the level of demand for the album, has stepped up production and will distribute nearly 2 million copies to European retailers and over 1 million in Asia. The soundtrack market has shown strong growth in recent years, buoyed by the popularity of the rock albums linked to cult youth films, such as Romeo & Juliet and Trainspotting, and classical releases, notably Shine and Immortal Beloved. Yet no recent soundtrack has sold as swiftly as Titanic, which consists mostly of instrumental music written specially for the film by James Horner, the US composer. There is only one song on the album, My Heart Will Go On, by Celine Dion, Sonys best-selling French-Canadian singer, whose latest album, Let's Talk About Love, was dislodged from the top of the US chart by Titanic.