Physical versus Digital music sales

2008 performance

"Despite global digital sales growing 24.1 % to $3.78bn and performance income by 16.2% last year, total sales still finished down 8.3% at $18.4bn after a 15.4% collapse in physical sales"

Europe:

Sales of $7,3bn - down 6,3%

Digital $750m - up 36,1%

Physical $5,8bn - down 11,3%

USA:

Sales of $4,9bn - down 18,6%

Digital $1,78bn - up 16,5%

Physical down $1 BILLION - largest drop seen and largest in the world

Performance income up 133%

The recorded music industry generates a greater proportion of its revenues through digital sales than the film, magazine and newspaper industries combined.

Single track downloads, up 24 per cent in 2008 to 1.4 billion units globally, continue to drive the online market, but digital albums are also growing steadily (up 37%). The top selling single of 2008 was Lil Wayne’s Lollipop

The US is the world leader in digital music sales, accounting for some 50 per cent of the global digital music market value. Single track downloads crossed the one billion mark for the first time in 2008, totalling 1.1 billion, up 27 per cent on 2007. Digital album sales totalled 66 million, an increase of 32 per cent (Nielsen SoundScan)

The UK saw the biggest increase in digital sales in the first half of 2008 among the top markets, with sales up by 45 per cent. 110 million single tracks were downloaded in 2008, up 42 per cent on 2007. Digital album sales also rose sharply, by 65 per cent to 10.3 million now accounting for 7.7 per cent of the albums market (OCC/BPI)

Collating separate studies in 16 countries over a three-year period, IFPI estimates more than 40 billion files were illegally file-shared in 2008, giving a piracy rate of around 95 per cent.

Interesting note : 75% of global sales are still physical, against just 4% digital