IFPI: Growth In Digital Music Slows, Top Albums Fall

The IFPI have published their 2011 digital music report. It indicates that digital revenues have grown 6% globally to $4.6 billion in 2010. Digital music accounted for 29% of record companies' total revenues last year, up 25% in 2009. In the UK, digital music sales grew almost 20% year on year in 2010.

From 2004 to 2010, digital sales have grown by over 1,000%. However, overall global music sales declined by 31% in the same time period. At present, there are more than 400 legal digital music services in operation on a global scale, with more than 200 of them available across Europe. Among the global top-50 album releases, IFPI reported that sales have fell 77% since 2003. In 2003, 47.3 million titles were sold compared to the 10.8 million titles in 2010. Also, the number of debut albums to debut in the top 50 has fallen from 10 in 2003 to 7 in 2010.

Full report here.