Digital sales of music have increased to close to $2.9 billion in 2007, now accounting for 15 percent of all sales in the industry, according to the latest report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The only sector doing better digitally is the gaming industry.
The sales figures include both online and mobile digital music sales, which were up close to 40 percent from 2006.
While it was also pointed out that the drop in CD sales around the world counteracted the good digital sales, that's to be expected in the current hybrid marketplace. We haven't seen the bottom of the CD slowdown yet, and until we do, this will continue to happen.
The CD sales drop did make 2007 music sales fall from the 2006 total.
The IFPI has connections to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which vigorously opposes the downloading of music illegally.
* The first-ever global music download sales chart is topped by Avril Lavigne, who sold 7.3 million track downloads of her song Girlfriend across the world in 2007.
* Global digital music sales are estimated at approximately $2.9 billion in 2007, a roughly 40% increase on 2006 ($2.1 billion).
* Single-track downloads, the most popular digital music format, in 2007 grew 53% to 1.7 billion (including those on digital albums).
* Digital sales now account for an estimated 15% of the global music market, up from 11% in 2006 and zero in 2003.
* In the world’s biggest digital music market, the US, online and mobile sales now account for 30% of all revenues.
* The music industry is more advanced in terms of digital revenues than any other creative or entertainment industry except games. Its digital share is more than twice that of newspapers (7%), films (3%) and books (2%).
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