When my Dad asks, completely unprompted, ìso, what are these iPod things?", you know digital music has truly arrived and, with MP3 players the must-have gift of Christmas
2004, all of the legit UK download platforms (and no doubt some of the non-legit ones too) enjoyed considerable boosts over the festive period.
Overall download sales reached an all time high, with the **Official UK
Charts Company** reporting that over 260,000 downloads were sold in the week after Christmas. It will be interesting to see if this immediate boost in download sales, presumably aided by the number of digital music players given as presents this Christmas, is sustained - or if the mainstream music fan will opt to rip tracks off CDs rather than download direct from iTunes et al.