The sales of music DVDs continued to grow in 2004, making video sales an increasingly important revenue stream for the music business. According to a report by Informa Telecoms and Media, while global music sales fell by 1 per cent in 2004 to $29.4 billion, music video sales (which basically means DVD sales)
rose by an estimated 26.3 per cent to $2.7 billion.
The research firm reckons overall audio sales, even with the growth in digital music, will be "almost unchanged" this year, while the sale of DVD videos will continue to rise, perhaps as much as 18 per cent. That is a pattern analysts reckon could continue for the foreseeable future meaning that by 2010, when they reckon annual music DVD sales will be worth $38.7 billion, the video sector will provide a crucial part of the music industry's income.
Informa's
Simon Dyson told reporters this week: "The continued rise in home DVD hardware penetration has created for the music industry a valuable new income stream. Although the digital sector has grabbed all the headlines, overall growth in the next few years is likely to come from music video."