More stats incoming... New figures from the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (our favourite international federation, well, for the phonographic industry anyway) say that digital music sales in the first half of 2005 have tripled compared to figures for the same period in 2004. Based on that the IFPI estimate that 6% of record sales around the world are now digital, and that the digital sector is worth $790 million a year - more than the global singles market.
However (although not that surprisingly), the growth in digital came at the same time as a 6.3% decline in global CD sales, and a 1.9% decline in the overall value of the world's recorded music market from $13.4 billion to $13.2 billion. Therefore the overall message from the IFPI was upbeat regarding the growth in legitimate digital music sales, but cautious of the threat they reckon the recording industry still faces from online piracy.
IFPI boss John Kennedy told reporters: "The digital music boom is continuing and it is growing at an exciting pace for the music industry. More and more people in a growing number of countries are turning to the new legal ways of downloading music on the internet or via mobile phones. [But] there is a long way to go - digital and physical piracy remain a big threat to our business in many markets. Our industry's priorities are to further grow this emerging digital music business while stepping up our efforts to protect it from copyright theft."