Hypebot’s Digital Music QuickNews:

The record business overall experienced a 10.4% drop in album sales in the first nine months of 2005.

DIGITAL SALES TRIPLE TO 6% OF INDUSTRY RETAIL REVENUES AS GLOBAL MUSIC MARKET FALLS 1.9%; Booming Demand For Music On The Internet And Mobile Phones Nearly Offset The Decline In Physical Formats.

Digital music has achieved its first million-selling single track — Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl”. Taken from her debut solo album. The track has achieved over one million download sales since itsdebut last year

Who needs to pay for satellite radio when free internet radio will soon be available everywhere?  Philadelphia yesterday announced a plan to build the biggest municipal wireless Internet system in the nation, the latest of a growing number of cities to treat high-speed Web access as a basic municipal service like water, electricity and trash collection.  Any music marketer who is  not staking out his or her space in the internet radio landscape is missing a huge opportunity. 

Wednesday and Thursday Kurt Hanson’s RAIN newsletter will look at the different delivery methods, including WiMax and 3G (among others) that are set to compete for the mass of mobile subscribers ready to harness the capabilities that these systems promise to deliver. Read it all at http://www.kurthanson.com.