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Global revenue from music downloaded onto computers and mobile phones doubled to about 2.0 billion dollars in 2006, an international trade body has said.
But the digital business accounted for only about 10 percent of total music sales in 2006, and the surge in demand for downloaded tunes had not offset a decline in sales of physical music such as compact discs, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said Wednesday.
“By 2010 we expect at least one quarter of all music sales worldwide to be digital,” IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said.
“I would like to be announcing that a fall in CD sales is being compensated for by an equal or greater increase in online and mobile revenues. But that is not yet happening on a global basis,” he added. Only in South Korea had digital sales overtaken physical sales in 2006.
Currently, the split between global downloads made online and on mobile phones remains fairly equal, but varies substantially across markets, the IFPI said.
Last year, the number of tracks made available online doubled to more than four million, across 498 online music services in over 40 countries. The IFPI added that the recording industry’s greatest challenge was the unauthorised availability of its product.
“Digital piracy and the devaluation of music content is a real threat to the emerging digital music business,” it said.
Source:
Yahoo! News
Related Links:
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
