As Consumers Continue to Take Legal Route, Online Music Market to Experience Healthy Growth

In-Stat: Healthy growth in the online music market will continue for the rest of the decade, with Worldwide sales growing from $1.5 billion in 2005 to $10.7 billion in 2010,. That revenue from downloaded music will outpace revenue from physical media bought online by 2007. This is evidence that the Internet is now a key distribution channel for legitimate digital music sales; and the mobile phone is also evolving into an important channel for digital music.

Consumers are clearly opting for legal ways to purchase music, and more legitimate music sites are available,. But vendors still face significant obstacles including Internet piracy, interoperability concerns, and the unlicensed use of digital streams.

• Nearly half of the survey respondents admitted to downloading music from the Internet; and 64% of these respondents have paid for the music.

• The largest percentage of respondents who have purchased music online spent between $10 and $20 in the last 12 months.

• The most popular site used was iTunes, with 53% of music purchasers having used the site.

The Online Music Market: Downloaded Music Will Outpace Physical Media Bought Online in 2007 Publ 20060315