Muse album 'bucking world sales decline'

Muse have been bucking the global decline in music sales with the release of their latest album The Resistance.

The record has reached number one in 18 countries around the world, while previous LP Black Holes & Revelations made it to the top spot in seven territories.

In the UK, the album shifted 148,161 copies in seven days and had the third highest first week sales behind Eminem's Relapse and U2's No Line On The Horizon.

"When you compute the declining market that is really amazing," Warner Music's Matthieu Lauriot-Prevost told Music Week. "It is more than we were dreaming about.

"We have a schedule for the band for the next 18 months. It feels like it could be a big, big record.

"Our goal is to take the band to the next level in every territory: where they are platinum, take them to double platinum, where they are gold take then to platinum. The sky is the limit."

Muse are currently supporting U2 on their US tour and will tour the UK and Europe in November.