Digital Music Sales Predictions for 2012

eMarketer, a research group, has released more predictions for digital music sales for 2012. Last year, digital music sales revenues were $2.4 billion which translates to roughly 15% of total music sales (physical albums & digital). eMarketer predicts this number to skyrocket to $13 billion by 2012.

What is really astonishing is that eMarketer predicts 62% of this $13 billion to be from sales of ringtones and ringback tones, and just 38% to come from actual full song downloads. This really points strongly to the growth of mobile devices and ringtones being used as a form of personal expression.

If these predictions hold true, that means that people will be hearing the songs from somewhere, not buying the actual song, but rather purchasing a small part of the song for use on a telephone. That is quite astonishing. People will choose a sliver of a song instead of the whole thing.

In line with this, eMarketer also predicts a huge rise in ad-supported music sites. Perhaps this is where people will be able to stream their favorite songs for free (supported by ads) without having to purchase them, but will need to purchase the ringtone for use on their phone. Very interesting. Ten years ago, who would have thought that the album would be dying and that slivers of songs would soon be selling more than full-length songs?

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com