Legal music download sales triple
Booming demand for music on the internet and mobile phones nearly offset the decline in physical formats as recorded music sales fell 1.9% to a retail value of $US 13.2 billion in the first half of 2005, compared to $US 13.4 billion in the same period of 2004.
IFPI has estimated the retail value of the digital music market in order to be consistent with its reporting of physical sales, and to allow year-on-year comparisons. On that basis, digital music sales in the period amounted to approximately $US 790 million, up from $US 220 million in the first half of 20041. This is the equivalent of 6% of total record industry sales.
On a trade basis, excluding the retail margin, digital sales in the first half of 2005 totalled $US 440 million. This includes sales from a-la-carte download stores, music subscription stores and from mobile music services such as downloads and ringtunes . The figure does not include revenues from monophonic and polyphonic ringtones.
The surge in digital music sales is being driven by the growing uptake of broadband, increasing penetration of 3G mobile phones and portable music players, and a series of successful launches of new music services in different countries over the past year. The digital music market has now overtaken the value of the global singles market.
The figures show online and mobile sales making a significant impact on the world music market for the first time.
The digital music business is so far being driven largely by the world s top five markets US, Japan, UK, Germany and France but is expected to spread rapidly and will benefit many other markets in the coming months.
IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: "The digital music boom is continuing and it is growing at an exciting pace for the music industry, for online retailers and for consumers. More and more people in a growing number of countries are turning to the new legal ways of downloading music on the internet or via mobile phones.
Meanwhile, there has been other good news in 2005: our actions to contain internet piracy, whether by education or by litigation, are working. And the legal environment is improving, with a series of recent decisions against unauthorised file-swapping services such as Kazaa helping to shift the balance in favour of the legitimate business.
There is a long way to go - digital and physical piracy remain a big threat to our business in many markets. Our industry's priorities are to further grow this emerging digital music business while stepping up our efforts to protect it from copyright theft."
Physical music sales in the first half of the year, by contrast, fell by 6.3% in retail value to $US 12.4 billion, and by 6.6% in units, compared to the same period of 2004.
Complete article at ifpi.com