DIGITAL MUSIC FAST FACTS

P2P user volume went up globally in August, but levels in the US remained mostly steady. According to BigChampagne.com, the number of average simultaneous users worldwide hit 9.62 million in August, an increase of 1.3% over July. When compared to the same period last year, the increase is a more drastic 41%, part of an overall surge in file-sharing. In the US, total simultaneous users hit 6.87 million, a figure level with  the previous month but a 51% jump over August 2004.

– A new study of about 1000 iPod users found that the average digital music player contains 375 songs but at the same time 50% of digital music players hold fewer than 100 songs.

– BMI posted revenues of more than $728 million for fiscal 2004-2005, an increase of more than 8.3% over the previous year. This marks the first time that any copyright organization in the world has crossed the threshold of $700 million in performing rights collections. This represents an increase of $56 million over the previous year and resulted in royalty distributions tosongwriters, composers and publishers of more than $623 million.