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Digital sales leave CD stores spinning old tune

Worldwide downloaded music revenue nearly doubled last year while its competitors continued to decline.

By Scott Barancik
Published January 17, 2007

CDs still dominate the global music landscape. But digital sales — music purchased and downloaded via computer or cell phone — are catching up.

An industry report released Wednesday by London-based IFPI  found that worldwide digital music revenues nearly doubled to $2-billion in 2006 and now account for 10 percent of total music sales. Americans alone downloaded an estimated 582-million singles last year. CD sales, by contrast, continued to decline.

 The figures contradict the argument — popular several years ago when users of Napster and other file-sharing services freely traded tracks stripped from their CDs — that downloading songs would inspire more retail CD sales, not less.

Though consumers are enjoying their ever-widening array of music media, online and bricks-and-mortar record store owners are suffering. Several bay area stores have closed their doors recently, and they’re not the only ones affected.

Dick Rumore, whose Paragon Music Center has supplied Tampa bands with musical instruments and equipment for four decades, said that nervous record industry executives have cut back on their financial support for fledgling bands.
How we get our digital music differs widely by country. Japanese audiophiles download 90 percent of their music wirelessly onto mobile devices. In the United States, 76 percent was downloaded online.

And the digital creep isn’t slowing. IFPI predicts that digital music’s share of global sales will hit 25 percent by 2010.

[Last modified January 17, 2007, 20:54:06]