The BPI yesterday announced that download sales for 2005 had passed the ten-million mark - almost twice the level for the whole of 2004. That figure, the BPI says, shows that the British public are now really opting for the legal download services rather than the illegal P2P file sharing networks.
Confirming the ten-million mark had been passed, BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson told CMU: "The record industry has enthusiastically embraced the new legal download services since their emergence in the mainstream little more than a year ago and now we're beginning to reap the rewards. The battle against illegal filesharing will continue, but we are delighted to have hit this milestone so soon."
The download stats came in the BPI's Quarterly Review thingy, which also revealed the following:
The recent vinyl revival has continued through 2005. It seems more and more record labels are promoting key indie releases with limited edition seven inch vinyl singles, and such releases from the likes of The Libertines, Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand, plus a limited edition reissue of Iron Maiden's 'Number Of The Beast', have helped shift nearly 1.4 million 7" singles - quarterly sales are up 87.3%, and the last 12 months have been the best for the format since 1998.
DVD single sales have also been performing well this year which means that, while CD single sales continue to be low, if you combine the sales of downloads, vinyl, CD and DVD singles, the singles market is actually doing pretty good - 52.4% up in fact. Lovely.
On all that malarkey, Peter Jamieson continued: "Despite the incredible growth in download sales, there is still a huge demand for the collectible physical formats. It would be wrong to write-off physical formats just yet. Record companies are committed to meeting consumer demand in whatever format people want their music".
Elsewhere, it seems that British music is enjoying increasing success in the US, with 75 UK albums topping the 100,000 sales mark in the US in 2004 - compared with 66 the previous year. Not only that, but Coldplay, Oasis and Gorillaz have achieved considerable successes in the US in the last quarter. Such is the success of British music in the States just now that the BPI plans to step up its marketing efforts there - aiming to capitalise on the momentum and increase further the number of UK artists enjoying success in the most lucrative of music markets.
Jamieson: "We have not seen anything like it for a decade. From Coldplay to Oasis, Dido to Gorillaz, Lostprophets to Franz Ferdinand, British music is on the march. We will prioritise the US in our international strategy in order to make the most of the opportunity. We need to capitalise on the growing openness to UK music".
Finally, the BPI says that the much reported slump in album sales in the UK has been much exaggerated - in fact album sales only fell by a "modest" 1.7%. And it was compilations that suffered the biggest downturn - 14.2% (the cover mount effect perhaps? How many love songs / eighties / rock compilations can any one person need?). If you take just artist albums sales in the last quarter were actually up 2.2% on the same quarter in 2004, reflecting the recently strong release schedule.
Summarising all this good news, Jamieson concluded: "It's been a good quarter for the recorded music business, even though the major releases occurred towards its end. This is testament to the fact that despite difficult market conditions, British music is as popular as ever."
Make a mental note of that for the next time we're told that the file sharing menace is jeopardizing the future of the music business. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should be investing less in expensive litigation and anti-piracy technology, and more in clever thinking (DVD singles, legit download platforms, limited edition vinyl etc) and quality music.