BPI records music download boom

Posted on 2 Sep 2005 at 12:27

Music fans switching to legal music downloads are fuelling a digital sales boom, according to new figures from the UK record industry's trade association, the BPI.

The digital music market has grown at a rapid rate, with 5.7 million tracks sold in 2004 compared to virtually zero in 2003 and sales continue to snowball. In August, legal downloads smashed previous records by topping the 500,000 per week mark for the first time and Brits have already downloaded 13 million songs this year.

However, the market is still very much in its infancy, with digital music accounting for only 3.6 per cent of music purchases, but the industry chiefs predict that sales will continue to grow at a dramatic rate.

BPI spokesperson Matt Phillips puts the market's early success down to a small sector of music consumers and suggests that the industry needs to appeal to a wider market to progress further.

'The legal downloads market is growing rapidly, but so far tech-savvy early adopters have driven demand,' he said, 'While the market is widening there is still much potential for further growth.'

For the first time this year the percentage of men downloading music fell as more women turn to digital music and new figures also suggest that downloaders are becoming younger. So, it seems the digital trend is already making inroads to a wider market.

'For years the record industry has been working to help develop a workable alternative to illegal filesharing,' said BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson, 'Now it is here, more and more people are tuning into legal download sites for the choice, value and convenience they offer.'

Now retailers are anticipating a huge surge in digital downloads and are finding new ways to appeal to the masses. HMV relaunches a new download service on Monday, HMV Digital, and Virgin relaunches VirginDigital.com today.

Author: Kelly Ellis