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Online Music Sales Doubled In 2006 |
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
  The music industry has anounced that it intends to sue internet service providers if they continue to allow digital music pirates to download music from their networks.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) made the threat after the 2007 Digital Music Report showed that the increase in global download sales has not compensated for the fall in CD sales.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported that digital music sales have doubled over the last year to $2bn worldwide, which included a 90 per cent increase in single track downloads to $795mn.
Ilegal file-sharing has dropped from 18% in 2002 to 14%, the IFPI still believes that it is continuing to damaging the growth of a legitimate digital music industry. IFPI Chairman John Kennedy said in a press conference that “if the ISP would step up and play their part in preventing piracy, we would be able to eradicate it."
This argument erupted after the report showed that digital music sales worldwide have almost doubled to £1bn in the last year and could account for a quarter of all sales by 2010.
The report also said that last year consumers downloaded 795 million tracks, up to 89% on 2005, from almost 500 legitimate online music services in 40 countries and the UK is second only to America as the country responsible for the most downloads.
Because of this obvious shift in sales from CDs to downloads, major record labels are now desperately trying to corner the market so not to lose out. The CEO of the EMI Group, Eric Nicoli, has spoken out about the challenge downloading has presented to labels but insists that this is the way forward.
IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said:
"The record industry today has evolved into a digital thinking, digitally literate business. Revenues in 2006 doubled to about $2 billion and by 2010 we expect at least one quarter of all music sales worldwide to be digital. This is a market combining evolution and revolution, where the learning curve is changing direction on a regular basis.
IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said:
"The record industry today has evolved into a digital thinking, digitally literate business. Revenues in 2006 doubled to about $2 billion and by 2010 we expect at least one quarter of all music sales worldwide to be digital. This is a market combining evolution and revolution, where the learning curve is changing direction on a regular basis.
"The chief winners in the rise of digital music are consumers. They have effectively been given access to 24-hour music stores with unlimited shelf space. They can consume music in new ways and formats - an iTunes download, a video on YouTube, a ringtone or a subscription library.
"Yet the market remains a challenge. Other industries, such as film and newspapers, are struggling with the same problems that we have had to live with. As an industry we are enforcing our rights decisively in the fight against piracy and this will continue. However, we should not be doing this job alone. With cooperation from ISPs we could make huge strides in tackling internet piracy globally. It is very unfortunate that it seems to need pressure from governments or even action in the courts to achieve this, but as an industry we are determined to see this campaign through to the end."
The rapid growth of download sales has started a welcome change in the music industry. Last year Gnarls Barkley hit the top spot from downloads alone and more recently thanks to a change in the chart rules Koopa, an unsigned rock band from Essex, have enjoyed chart success without the help of a record company. From January 1st the official chart rules were changed to allow singles released as downloads alone into the UK charts.
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