This year’s Gold Disc Awards were held today and the big winners once again were Exile. The vocal group repeated as winners of the Japanese music category, the fifth time the feat has been achieved (previous names include Hamasaki Ayumi and Koda Kumi). The award is based mainly on CD sales, and Exile had another great year in 2008. Led by the hits collection “Exile Ballad Best,” they had 4.21 million album sales and fell just short of 10 million digital downloads. They won a total of 15 music awards last year and look to add a lot more in 2009. The latest award came the day after the 7-member group announced that it was doubling in size. The seven members of their “junior group” J Soul Brothers are now part of Exile, and the new lineup makes its first release with the single “The Monster/Someday” on April 15. They will embark on a 9-city national tour in May. Exile were formerly known as J Soul Brothers and handed that name over to the younger members in 2007. They released their major label debut album just last month, reaching No.1 on the Oricon chart.