A glimmer of hope for the UK music industry?

It's been a long time since we've seen the words "strength" and "sales" used in the same sentence of a press release by Britain's music trade group, the BPI. Today, however, the group is breaking with the dismal recent tradition to publish some promising news.

In 2007 and early 2008, the BPI reports, digital sales (which includes, but is not limited to, downloads of tracks from iTunes and mobile ring tones, plus music streaming revenues) was up yet again. Digital is particularly dominant in the sale of singles, accounting for 85 per cent of all Top-20 single sales in the year to March 31, 2008. Online music stores have now sold more than 200 million tracks to British consumers since early 2004. The impact is being seen on the music industry's balance sheet. The BPI says digital now accounts for 8.6 per cent of the UK record company sales of £943.4 million.

But when looking at album sales, the compact disc is still king. The CD accounts for 95 per cent of  all album sales in the UK. In this respect, the UK is a stand-out market. Britons bought 2.3 CDs per capita, more than any other market. Viewed through this lens, the humble download has a long way to go.

Comments

[Conrad]

The humble download will go all the way once DRM is removed. Why spend a fortune building up a record collection that will be obsolete once a serious rival to the iPod comes out? Cut DRM - watch legal downloads soar!