A record-breaking 55.74 million digital songs were sold last week (ending Dec. 30) — the single-largest week for download song sales ever according to Nielsen SoundScan. It beats the previous record of 47.73 million sold during the week ending Dec. 28, 2008.

The huge sales surge last week is owed largely to consumers redeeming music download gift cards received on Christmas Day. A week earlier (ending Dec. 23) there were 25.50 million songs sold.