Report: Half of Music Purchases Will Be Digital by End of 2010

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 10:59am.

Los Angeles - Half of music purchases will be digital by the end of 2010, and the value of digital purchases are expected to exceed the value of physical music purchases sometime in 2011, according to a presentation from Nielsen at the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) conference, Billboard reported.

The percentage of music purchases made from traditional physical record stores has declined from 68% in 2001 to 39% in 2009.

Nielsen also found that just 35% of album sales in 2008 were of albums released in that same year -- the lowest figure SoundScan has ever recorded.

When looking just at digital sales for 2008, 40% of all songs sold were released in 2007 or 2008; sales of older digital albums were up 37% that year, while sales of current digital albums rose just 27% in comparison.

The Nielsen data also shows that nascent formats like the slotMusic song-loaded memory card, and pre-paid digital album cards, have seen a steep drop-off in sales.

Since January, slotMusic album sales are off 65%, while digital album card sales have fallen 50%.

Related Links
http://snipurl.com/jv0v1 (Billboard)