GristyMcFisty lets us know that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organisation representing the record industry worldwide, has released a press release in which they announce that worldwide music sales fell by 10.9% in value and by 10.7% in units in the first half of 2003.
As always, the main reasons for the decline in sales are unauthorised file-sharing and commercial piracy. At the same time DVD music sales grew sharply and a there was a marked increase in the availability of legitimate online music, with 300,000 tracks now on offer online:
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Internet piracy in particular affected the world's major markets in the first half of 2003. Germany, Japan, France and the US suffered significant declines. Germany, Japan, the US and Canada have seen the numbers of unauthorised downloads of tracks and copied CDs reach, and in some cases exceed, the levels of legitimate track and CD album sales. There has been growth in some markets. In Europe, Austria and Finland showed sales increases, driven by successes with local repertoire. Sales in volume terms increased in Norway, while in the UK album sales rose by 4% and singles in Spain enjoyed a great success. The Russian market rose in value thanks to continued transition from cassette to CD, while Australia recovered thanks to very strong DVD video sales. In Asia, Hong Kong also experienced recovery, aided by a surge in sales of compilation albums. There were also some positive signs in terms of genre sales. In the US, Latin Music sales underwent a revival in 2003, up 29%, and jazz sales increased 35%. |
The IFPI press release adds that there has been an encouraging increase in the number of online music services offering record companies' repertoire legitimately. Europe, for example, now has more than 30 sites offering legitimate online music either by pay-per-download or subscription. Sales from these sites are expected to increase in the coming months.
Source: ifpi
