Digital outsells all but CDs
Date: 11 February 2004
Digital downloads outsold DVDs, vinyl and cassettes for the first time in the UK last month when legitimate music downloads reach 150,000 in January, according to new figures from the Official UK Charts Company.
The sales figures supports research issued by an international anti-piracy body last month stating that half a million Europeans have now signed up to more than 30 different legal music services.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that the number of legitimate tracks available online rose 30% from 220,000 to 300,000 in the last three months of 2003.
"Eighteen months ago there was virtually no legitimate download business but now we've seen 50,000 tracks legally purchased online in one week," said a spokesperson for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the record industry trade body.
However, although the download business is buoyant, it is still dwarfed by CD single sales.
In the last week of January when legitimate music downloads hit 50,000 the number of CD singles bought was more than six times that figure at 340,000, according to the BPI.
Nonetheless, the increase in legal music downloading bodes well for the Official UK Charts Company, which announced plans to integrate downloads into the Official Singles Chart in October of last year in conjunction with pan-European music platform OD2.
The Charts Company said "tests are going well" and that it would make an announcement regarding the formal launch of the new Singles Chart incorporating digital downloads in six months with a view to rolling out the service within a year.
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www.theofficialcharts.com
Source: Netimperative
Okay... but I assume the "digital downloads" were all music, which doesn't compare well with DVDs et al. They should have stuck to a music/music comparison.
if they said that that digital downloads didnt beat the CD sales.. then RIAA couldnt use it as a spin to say how piracy has gotten out of control. So they compared it to other things
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