Quakester2000 and GristyMcFisty both used our
news
submit to tell us that according to figures
released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), last January legal
music downloads outsold some of their
physical counterparts (vinyl, cassette and DVD) in the UK for the
first time. However, CDs still dominate the sales market. Last month 150,000
digital songs were bought in the UK via the Internet. The recently launched
music download service MyCokeMusic sold 50,000 songs in its first week.
industry. While album sales in the UK continue to grow, downloads, both illegal and legal, have taken a bite out of the singles market. In 2003, unit shipments were down 30.7 per cent to 36.4 million and value was down 33.6 per cent to £64.4 million compared with 2002. BPI executive chairman Peter Jamieson observed: "All I can really see in the singles market is growth... most of it via illegal downloading. If we can transfer this theft to the new legitimate sites, we could see soon a return to the golden age of singles sales." A BPI spokesman added that it would take time for the legitimate downloads to catch up with CD sales, but argued that the figure for January were an indication that progress was being made. 'We've gone from virtually nothing 18 months ago to 150,000 downloads in a month which is impressive progress," he said. 'It is unfair to say that the industry has been dragging its feet, but creating an environment where artists can get paid for downloaded music has taken time." He also argued that for the legitimate online music sales to really make an impact, copyright awareness needs to increase, as many people are still unaware that file sharing can be illegal. 'This will happen, though, as more services become available, and as broadband penetration increases," he said. |
According to the
article there are plans to integrate the number of downloads
into singles charts later this year. The article
also mentions that the growth in album sales in the UK was attributed to the
success of new British artists such as Dido and The Darkness, as well as
aggressive price cutting on CD albums.
Source: The Register
